Recently, Taiwan and mainland China have signed three memorandums of understanding (MOUs) in Taiwan over LED cooperation, for creating common LED brands to tap global markets.

The three agreements address co-setting technical norm and standard for LED lighting, cooperation on LED technology development and demonstration projects of trial LED lights, and assessment and demonstration of LED lighting application projects in Shanxi Province and Harbin City.

According to Wu Ling, the Secretary General of China Solid State Lighting Alliance, after signing the memorandums the mainland and Taiwan can work together to tap world LED lighting market by forming synergy alliance, in which Taiwan is versed in upstream technology and the mainland is good at midstream and downstream manufacturing.

And a participating official of the mainland’s National Development and Reform Commission, disclosed that the mainland will begin on July 1 this year to prohibit imports, production and sale of high-power incandescent bulbs in the mainland, with the ban on low-power incandescent bulbs to be in force later. Assessments on the practice will be made in 2015 to provide the grounds for phasing out the bulbs rated above 15 watts beginning on Oct. 1 2016.

Additionally, the mainland’s Ministry of Finance this year alone will spend RMB2.2 billion (US$349 million at US$1:RMB6.3) to replace one million traditional streetlights and tunnel lights as well as 10 million spotlights and recessed downlights with LEDs at airports, hospitals, schools, harbors, train stations, state-run mining companies, and on roads.

These policies make both two sides achieve a win-to-win situation. Taiwan’s LED makers get a good opportunity for providing LED replacements for the incandescent bulbs in the mainland. And mainland Chinese enterprises also gain a chance to invest in Taiwan’s LED business except holding dominant stakes for the first time.