Industry executives believe the project will help bring down Wistron's LCD production costs, allowing it to compete against Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. in the field.

Wistron opened production lines in the city in 1997 to make notebook computers, game consoles, multimedia PCs and video/audio players on a contract basis. In recent years, the company has branched out into production of LCD TVs for brand-name suppliers.

Wistron has become Sony's foremost contract supplier of LCD TVs since last year, shipping half of its annual output of four million TVs to the Japanese supplier of household appliances.

Hon Hai has been aggressively vying for Sony's LCD TV contracts since it took over a Sony TV assembly factory in Tijuana in Mexico in September this year. As Sony's LCD TVs destined for North America are mostly completed in the factory, the takeover has racked Wistron's nerve. In late October, Sony was even reported to make inroad into mainland China's market forD TVs and game consoles in cooperation with Hon Hai, which is said to manufacture and market Sony branded products in the mainland.

To fortify its position in the market, Wistron came up with the industrial park project and would invite at least 30 LCD-related manufacturers in the upstream, middle-stream and downstream segments to open factories in the park. Wistron itself would likely combine an LCD business it acquired from the Lite-On Group with its in-house factory in the park.

Wistron plans to begin the construction on a 740,000-square-meter site in mid-December, which is slated for completion in June 2010. Total investment is around three billion Chinese yuan (US$441 million at US$1:6.8 yuan).