A trade and investment delegation led by Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) won US$36 million in orders in Indonesia during a three-day visit, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday.
The delegation, which returned to Taipei earlier in the day, held several business seminars during the visit, attracting about 1,200 potential buyers, the ministry said.
The delegation was comprised of more than 150 representatives from about 100 major Taiwanese companies, including Teco Group (東元集團), Winbond Electronics Corp (旺宏電子), CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), Tainan Enterprises Co (台南企業) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖).
Biggest group
The ministry said the delegation was the largest trade and investment group from Taiwan to visit the Southeast Asian country, showing that Taiwan’s business sector values the Indonesian market.
Shih met with Gita Wirjawan, head of Indonesia’s Coordinating Investment Board, while the other delegates visited industrial zones looking for business opportunities.
Packed with natural resources and a huge population, Indonesia has become one of the most important markets in Southeast Asia, the ministry said.
Room for growth
The ministry said there was room for Taiwan and Indonesia to work together economically, especially now that Taiwan and China have signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
Indonesia and Taiwan can complement each other in industrial development because Taiwan is strong in information technology, machinery and auto components, while Indonesia has an edge in oil, natural gas, timber, rubber and textiles, it said.
Taiwan’s accumulated investments in Indonesia total US$13.95 billion, according to the ministry’s data.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple