Taiwan Approves Subsidy for Dell's Cloud R&D Center Project

Department of Industrial Technology (DOIT) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) recently approved subsidizing Dell Inc.'s plan to open an energy-efficient cloud data center in Taiwan in exchange for the company's pledge to work with the island's manufacturers on the project.

Dell will invest around NT$1 billion (US$33.3 million) in three years in the center in addition to purchasing around NT$15 billion (US$500 million) of components a year from local manufacturers over three years beginning 2016, according to DOIT.

Local manufacturers on the company's partner list include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., Delta Electronics Inc., Wistron Corp., and Inventec Corp.

The investment project is among the 10 that American enterprises including Dell have agreed to invest in Taiwan in 2013 according to a recent Taiwan-USA Industrial Cooperation Promotion meeting.

The 10 projects also include  Hermers Marovision, and Synaptics Inc.

Hermers will invest NT$1 billion to work with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to develop advanced inspection technology to examine chips on 18-inch silicon wafers. According to DOIT officials, this is the first time for Hermers to move its R&D project on advanced chip inspection technology to Taiwan, attesting to the quality of Taiwan's R&D specialists and the pivotal position of Taiwan's semiconductor industry globally.

Synaptics will work with Taiwan's touch screen panel makers to develop ICs for panels with investment of around NT$500 million (US$16.6 million).

According to senior officials of the Taiwan-USA Industrial Cooperation Promotion Office, the cooperation between Taiwan and the U.S. will achieve  synergy, for Taiwan is good at converting patented technologies into commercial products while the U.S. owns plenty of patents. Such cooperation, they add, enables Taiwan to be the ideal supply chain partner of American suppliers of innovative technologies for commercialization.

The officials point out that the office aims to invite as much as NT$10 billion (US$333 million) from American enterprises in 2014. So far, the office is working on five prospective investment projects, which they say will likely bear fruits in 2014.

MOEA's statistics show that by the end of 2013 the office will have convinced American enterprises to invest NT$7.1 billion (US$238 million) in Taiwan, creating industry revenue estimated at around NT$342.7 billion (US$11.4 billion) for Taiwan. (KL)