Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) yesterday said a foreign memory chipmaker had expressed strong interest in helping Taiwan develop and entrench dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technology locally.
Speaking at a media luncheon, Yiin said he was briefed by Taiwan Memory Co’s (TMC, 台灣記憶體公司) designated chief John Hsuan (宣明智) about the progress in seeking foreign technological partnership.
Yiin did not disclose the name of the foreign company.
Backed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), TMC is concurrently talking with Elpida Memory Inc in Japan and Micron Technology Inc in the US.
Hsuan, honorary vice chairman of United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), said on Tuesday he expected to reach a concrete decision within a month.
Yiin yesterday said a local manufacturer of DRAM chips had also indicated willingness to provide research and development personnel to TMC.
Yiin offered no names either, but said TMC would be selective in choosing local partners.
Two of the smallest local DRAM companies may opt to partner with TMC, company officials said yesterday, Bloomberg reported.
“We would like work with Taiwan Memory and we could try to rent or sell our factory to it,” said Wilson Wen (溫萬壽), executive vice president of Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子).
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) also doesn’t rule out partnering with TMC for production, Chief Financial Officer Jessie Peng (彭卓蘭) said.
Yiin yesterday offered firm support to Hsuan, who said on Tuesday that the TMC was a revitalization plan for the DRAM industry, rather than a consolidation or merger plan as many investors and industry analysts had speculated.
The minister used building blocks as an analogy, saying that the local DRAM industry needed to build a solid foundation deeply rooted in its own proprietary technology, and could not take shortcuts by purchasing capacity that it cannot manufacture itself.
“With TMC’s revitalization plan and DRAM technology taking root in Taiwan, the local memory chip industry shall be a formidable force against its Korean counterpart,” Yiin said.
Pundits have expressed doubts about the effectiveness a meager NT$30 billion (US$870 million) in government capital would have on saving the ailing industry and have viewed the TMC incorporation as introducing competition rather than cohesion.
In response, Yiin said, “corporate executives need to reflect on the sequence of events that led their companies to such a demise and assume responsibility.”
He said again yesterday that it was not the responsibility of the government to save private enterprises and that the MOEA is stepping in to salvage the DRAM industry for the nation, not rescue individual companies.
As to disparaging remarks made by Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁), Yiin said that companies could submit individual “technology upgrade” proposals to the Industrial Development Bureau and apply for bank loans, and that he never referred to Huang as a “fat cat.”
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