Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Tuesday after touring United Microelectronics Corp. in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park that he supports the major Taiwan computer chip maker's investment project in Singapore.
The president said that as long as domestic enterprises' outbound investment strengthens the continued growth and extention of domestic industry, the government will view it from a positive perspective and support it.
Chen said UMC's investment in the building of a US$3.6 billion wafer plant, the largest single Taiwan investment in Singapore, will serve as a reference for Taiwan on how Singapore attracts investors.
The president lauded UMC's investment as representative of domestic enterprises' ability to go multi-national, meaning that they do not only have to invest in third world countries to make use of cheap labor there.
Chen stressed that through the UMC's investment in Singapore, Taiwan will be able to learn how the Singaporean government has used attractive offers and its high
efficiency to introduce high-tech industry, how it has solved water and electricity supply problems, and how it has set environmental standards and implemented environmental measures, all of which will serve as a useful reference for the improvement of Taiwan's domestic investment environment.
Chen continued by saying that a modern government should not try to apply a too rigid approach to its top enterprises and turn them into second or third rate enterprises by tying them down too much.
The president said that he was gratified to see that UMC has continued in recent years to pursue the upgrading of its technology and the forming of international strategic alliances to expand its business scale.