Taiwan's integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing sector is expected to recover its momentum in 2006 and see its production value increase to 671 billion new Taiwan dollars (20.61 billion U.S. dollars), according to a report reaching here from Taipei Wednesday.

According to a forecast of the Industrial Technology Research Institute's (ITRI) Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center, the projected figure will represent a rise of 14.2 percent from 2005.

Also, the ITRI predicted that the total production value of Taiwan's IC industry will expand to 1.29 trillion new Taiwan dollars (39.62 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, up 15.9 percent from last year.

The production value of contract chip making is likely to increase 19.1 percent this year, according to the ITRI.

The production value of IC design is expected to amount to 320 billion new Taiwan dollars (9.83 billion U.S dollars) in 2006, up 12.3 percent over last year and the figure would represent a significant jump of 23.6 percent over 2005.

Source: Xinhua