Taiwan's Lawmakers Say No to DRAM Restructuring Plan

Taipei, Nov. 12, 2009 (CENS)--The economic committee of the Legislative Yuan yesterday resolved to request the Ministry of Economic Affairs' (MOEA's) to drop its restructuring plan designed to boost the competitiveness of Taiwan's dynamic random access memory industry.

Legislators of the committee including three running Kuomintang members and one opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member approved the resolution, demanding the ministry stop the restructuring plan and not to finance DRAM makers qualified for the restructuring plan. The ministry plans to furnish the plan with NT$30 billion (US$937 million at US$1:NT$32) as fund for financing qualified applicants.

So far, three companies including Taiwan Innovative Memory Co. (TIMC) and PowerChip Semiconductor Corp. (PSC) have forwarded their restructuring plans to the ministry for review. The ministry yesterday announced suspension of the qualification screening upon learning the committee's resolution. Committee members said the plan would end up with wasting government money.

The committee's resolutions have legal binding. The ministry yesterday reported to Economy Minister Y.S. Shih, who was in Singapore taking part in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), on the decision.

The ministry will submit its evaluation on the impact of the resolution on the restructuring plan to the Executive Yuan, Taiwan's Cabinet, next week. The Cabinet will determine what to do about the DRAM plan after receiving the ministry's assessment.

If the Cabinbet decides to maintain the plan, the ministry will have to work even harder to convince the legislators to accept the plan before the resolution is up for the third reading by the Legislative Yuan.

On hearing the committee's decision, executives of DRAM maker Inotera Memories Inc. of the Formosa Plastics Group said the decision is a right one from the government. They said the government should allow enterprises to solve their problems on their own.