Xicor Corp has received approval from the Israeli government to build a $270m wafer fabrication plant and design centre, starting in 1992, and Israel is expected to reimburse 38% of the cost under its investment promotion programme: the plant will add 1,700 local jobs when it is fully operational, and will make 1M and 4M electrically erasable programmable read-only memory chips; Xicor will also get a reduced income tax rate of 10% for an extended period, and Israel’s special relationship with the European Community makes the move almost the equal of siting a plant in the Community in trade terms.
