Taiwan forecasts $31B in new investment

The Taiwan government aims to boost private sector investment in the local economy to NT$1.07 trillion (US$30.56 billion) this year, with a focus on technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identification).

If the government reaches its target, the figure would be 11.4 percent higher than the NT$927.6 billion in new private investment projects Taiwan attracted last year, the government said Saturday.

One focus the government highlighted in its report is on RFID technologies, including chip modules and Gen2 Tags, or ultra-high frequency chips developed around the EPCglobal standard for second generation EPC technology. EPCglobal is a non-profit group set up to maintain barcode standards and commercialize related technologies.

Taiwan made NT$814 million worth of RFID products last year, up 15.3 percent over 2005, the government said.

The island's chip and LCD (liquid crystal display) industries are expected to lead all others in private investments this year for the high tech sector.

Japanese chip maker Elpida Memory and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor plan to spend up to NT$50 billion this year to launch their joint venture DRAM (dynamic RAM) company in Taiwan this year.

Over the next five years, however, the investment will be substantially larger, a total of around US$13.9 billion, to build four DRAM factories in Taiwan. The deal was announced last year, but on Thursday, the two chip makers signed the final agreement, and announced the name of their new company, Rexchip Electronics.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chip maker, plans to spend between US$2.6 billion and US$2.8 billion on new production lines and factories this year, up slightly from US$2.46 billion last year.