Asustek Computer announced on July 5th that its plan to invest US$25 million to establish a manufacturing site in Shanghai had been approved by the Taiwan Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

This will be Asustek's second manufacturing site in China. Construction of a new plant will start immediately after the company determines the location of the site next quarter and the first phase of construction is expected to be completed in 2005.

Asustek currently has a factory site in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, which is used by five of its subsidiaries. Since the 540,000 square meter complex is fully developed, the company applied in April to establish a second site in Shanghai. According to the company, the Shanghai site will be larger than the Suzhou one. Asustek's new China subsidiary Protek Computer (Shanghai) will have a factory there for producing general PCBs (printed circuit boards).