Gov't welcomes EU Chips Act that aims to partner with Taiwan, TSMC

Taipei, Feb. 9 (CNA) Taiwan on Wednesday welcomed an act proposed by the European Union (EU) that aims to enable the EU to work more closely with world leaders in the semiconductor industry such as Taiwan.

On Tuesday, the European Commission unveiled the European Chips Act which neutralizes its strict rules governing state aid to lure companies like Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, to build more microprocessors in the region.

Under the act, the commission plans to allocate 11 billion euros (US$12.56 billion) in public funds for the research, design and manufacturing of semiconductors, with the goal of mobilizing a total of 43 billion euros of public and private investment until 2030 to expand the EU's global market share of semiconductors from the current 9 percent to 20 percent.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) on Wednesday expressed the government's receptiveness to the proposal on enhancing EU-Taiwan cooperation in bilateral investment and trade.

The ministry believes there is tremendous room for cooperation between Taiwan and the EU in terms of the semiconductor industry, global supply chain reconstruction, and strengthening democratic resilience in the post COVID-19 era, according to Ou.

Taiwan is ready to explore innovative measures to continue to deepen collaboration with the EU and its member states based on the existing communication channels, she added.

As stated in the act, only two companies in the world, one being TSMC in Taiwan, are capable of manufacturing the most advanced chips.

"As a first step, the above will be explored -- using existing or new fora -- with like-minded partners, such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and others," said the act.

During Tuesday's press event to unveil the act, Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president of the European Commission, and Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market, both lauded Taiwan's leading position in the semiconductor industry, while reiterating the EU's offer to TSMC to invest in Europe.