March 12, 2004 - United Microelectronics Corporation (TAIEX: 2303, NYSE: UMC), today held a meeting of the Board of Directors and Supervisors, at which the Board submitted proposals to be resolved at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), approved the 2003 Business Report and Financial Statements, and set the date for the AGM. A brief summary of the proposals to be submitted at the AGM is as follows:

• Stock dividend payment of NT$ 0.75 per common share
• Issuance of employee bonus of 111,127,354 common shares
• Reduction of the number of board directors from twelve to nine, with three of these board seats being held by elected independent directors
  
  

UMC's Board of Directors will propose at the Annual General Meeting to issue a stock dividend of 75 common shares for every 1000 common shares held by shareholders. It also proposes to issue 111,127,354 new shares to distribute as employee bonuses, as part of its competitive compensation program aimed at attracting and retaining the world’s best talent. UMC’s ability to attract the best people in the semiconductor industry has been a key factor in its success as a world-leading wafer foundry. The estimated stock dilution effect of the employee bonus issuance is about 0.62%.

As part of UMC's ongoing effort to enhance corporate governance, UMC's Board of Directors plans to set up an audit committee. The company also proposes to reduce the number of board directors from twelve to nine, and plans to invite three independent directors to sit on the restructured board. The election of independent board members is a further step in UMC’s endeavor to meet or surpass the highest benchmarks for corporate governance.

At the board meeting, UMC's Board of Directors approved the 2003 Business Report and Financial Statements. The Company's revenue for 2003 was NT$84,862 million, with an after tax income of NT$14,020 million, or NT$0.92 per share.

Finally, the date for the 2004 Annual General Meeting was set for Monday, June 1, 2004 at 9:00 AM.

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC) designs, including 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, embedded DRAM, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan is currently in volume production for a variety of customer products, while Singapore-based UMCi has just entered volume production. UMC employs over 8,500 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.