Apr. 11, 2008 – Four Taiwanese chip assembly firms have received approval from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to send nearly $90M in investments to business interests in China, ahead of what may be an increase in cross-strait business deals following the appointment of a more liberally minded Taiwan government.

As part of the deal, the four firms — Lingsen Precision Industries, Kyec Yuan Electronics, Siguard Microelectronics, and Siliconware Precision Industries — will reciprocate by investing a combined $1.5B domestically over the next three years, notes the Taiwan Economic News.

Days ago, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) authorized an additional $30M capitalization in its Shanghai affiliate ASE (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., and has applied with the MOEA to add another $90M to the operation, which opened last June with $21.6M in capital, and would have ~$200M in capital once the two expansion plans are completed. The business’s major customers include local companies SMIC and Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics, plus TSMC, Broadcom, TI, and Intel.

The applications for the other four firms had been slow to progress through MOEA red tape — but their approval now suggests a coming wave of new investment activity greenlighted by a new government, led by president-elect Ma Ying-jeou of the challenging KMT party (which also gained a big majority in recent primary elections)

More specifics about the new MOEA investment approvals:

– Lingsen wants to add $10M capitalization to its mainland Chinese subsidiary;
– Kyec Yuan plans to increase capitalization in a mainland subsidiary by $20M;
– Siguard is investing $67M in a mainland semiconductor company;
– Siliconware is investing $50M into a mainland Chinese subsidiary.