The short answer is chicken sh-t, after a fashion.

The more diplomatic explanation envelops a host of quality-of-life issues the industry and the government must tackle if the park is to compete with Singapore and Shanghai as a chip-making hub.

Seems the UMC officials had brought their AMD compatriots down to Tainan to check out the area as a possible venue for the $3.5 billion fab. Unfortunately, right around that time, an irascible chicken farmer who wanted a buyout from the government decided to stir things up. The farmer burned chicken feces and dead chickens to turn up the pressure on the park administration. The AMD boys thus got wind of the problems plaguing the park and suspected their foreign staff wouldn't fancy a stint there.

A week later, during an investor conference in Taipei, UMC chairman Robert Tsao was asked why AMD had chosen Singapore over Tainan-Taiwan's follow-on to Hsinchu. He cited quality-of-life concerns and casually mentioned the chicken farm. "Tsao says chicken farm scared away AMD fab," national headlines blared the next day.

The following day-after three years of complaints by park employees-a government official, check in hand, showed up on the farmer's doorstep.

"You invest billions of dollars here, but a chicken farm can screw up everything and there's nothing you can do about it," Tsao lamented. "That's the malfunction of Taiwan's government."

UMC has already given up three out of five lots in Tainan. It has plenty in Singapore and is optimistic about expansion into China. Watch for rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to make similar moves.

Unless, of course, the Taiwanese realize that they are now competing on a different level. Land, resources and tax breaks will no longer be enough to win a fab.

Other countries have that, and more. Singapore and Shanghai can sell their intangibles, too, because they assume that foreign talent will be integral to their success. They are creating environments desirable to locals and foreigners alike.

The Taiwanese could make their parks' environs eminently livable "for the cost of one wafer plant," Tsao laments. "In the beginning there would not be a market to support such a big investment until the industry starts to ramp up. But the government needs to take the initiative to support the quality of the lives of the employees in the park."