South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday said that he would extend tax credits on investments in the domestic semiconductor industry to boost employment and attract more talent.
The country, home to top global memorychip makers Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, aims to expand tax breaks and support to raise the competitiveness of high-tech sectors, including those involving chips, displays and batteries.
“When I talk to heads of state, what I talk about most about South Korea is BTS and semiconductors,” Yoon told a meeting with chip industry officials and students, referring to the K-pop supergroup.
Photo: EPA-EFE
South Korea is also building a mega chip cluster in Yongin, touted as the world’s largest high-tech chipmaking complex to attract chip equipment and fabless firms.
Yoon said he expected total initial investment of about 622 trillion won (US$473.5 billion) in the cluster and the creation of at least 3 million jobs over 20 years, adding that the government would pour in every possible resource to win a “war” in chips.
In January last year, the South Korean government unveiled a plan to offer large tax breaks to semiconductor firms investing at home, which are set to end this year.
“Tax deduction for semiconductor investments is supposed to expire this year, but we will extend the effect of the law to continue with investment tax deduction,” Yoon said.
Rebutting claims that such tax credits give preferential treatment to large conglomerates, Yoon said increased investments in chips would lead to more jobs and more state tax income in the long term.
Separately, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to recruit semiconductor professionals from overseas by organizing talent-seeking missions to several Southeast Asian countries in the months ahead, officials from the ministry’s Industrial Development Administration (IDA) said.
Similar to last year, delegations composed of company representatives are to visit the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, but not to Singapore on this occasion, in response to calls from academia-government-industry to recruit and groom IC design, assembly and test talent for the domestic semiconductor industry, which is experiencing an acute talent shortage, IDA officials said.
A delegation is to head to the Philippines in March, followed by others to Malaysia and Indonesia in June, and Vietnam in September, they added.
Singapore has been skipped this year as Singaporean professionals prefer to work at local plants set up by MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) for higher monthly salaries and other benefits, rather than coming to Taiwan, they said.
Taiwanese chip firms recruited 316 people to work or study in Taiwan following their first tours to the five Southeast Asian countries last year.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
RSS