Hsinchu, Taiwan, April 1, 2002 - UMC (NYSE: UMC) announced today that effective April 1st, Robert Tsao will no longer serve as the company CEO. The position will be taken over by Vice Chairman John Hsuan, while Robert will continue to serve as Chairman for the company.

UMC expressed, "This top-level reorganization will allow our management team to maximize our efficiency by allowing us to better specialize our individual efforts. Vice Chairman John Hsuan possesses extensive sales and marketing experience, making him a particularly ideal candidate for the CEO position. This move also reflects UMC's customer-centric mentality, as it will create a more dynamic management team allowing us to further focus our efforts towards gaining market share as the industry recovers."