Super Micro Computer Inc is to invest up to NT$10 billion (US$323.7 million) in Taiwan and add more than 2,000 jobs, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday at a groundbreaking ceremony in Taoyuan’s Bade District (八德).
As part of a plan to increase production in Asia, the San Jose, California-based information technology company invested NT$2 billion for phase one of the construction project at the Bade technology park.
The company develops servers and storage units that are energy efficient and environmentally friendly, Super Micro founder and chief executive officer Charles Liang (梁見後) said.
Photo: CNA
“A lot of our equipment can now last for 12 years, this means fewer renewals and therefore less electronic waste and heavy-metal pollution, which is why we want to expand our production and sell globally,” Liang said. “This is only the second phase, there will be a third, a fourth and a fifth.”
Foreign investment in Taiwan totaled NT$536.5 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 31 percent and the highest in recent years, Tsai said, citing Ministry of Economic Affairs data.
“Our efforts to relax regulations, support enterprise reorientation and amend income tax rules have greatly improved the investment environment in Taiwan over the past three years, according to international criteria,” Tsai said.
The World Economic Forum ranked Taiwan 13th for global competitiveness last year and the World Bank ranked the nation 13th for ease of doing business, she said.
Super Micro has operations in Taiwan, Japan, China and the Netherlands that employ about 3,600 people. The company specializes in servers, storage units, rack solutions and networking devices.
In 2012, Super Micro established a technology park in Bade that occupies about 5.7 hectares and employs about 960 people.
Phase two of the construction project would add about 66,000m2 and add jobs in software and hardware development, management, and sales, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Meanwhile, asked about comments that Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) made about national defense and arms procurement, Tsai said that the nation’s military actions are dictated by national defense.
“Since 2016, we have emphasized achieving an autonomous national defense, whether in research and development or production, such as constructing indigenous naval vessels. Only when local production is insufficient do we procure arms,” Tsai said. “Chairman Gou should agree with me that no country or people should use weapons to undermine peace.”
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