AU Optronics (AUO) has no plans to spin off its touch panel business unit as clients like to see the effectiveness of integrated production, according to company chairman KY Lee. Lee made the remarks amid market reports indicating that rival Chimei Innolux (CMI) plans to split its flat panel business into three units.

Additionally, AUO plans to add more value-added functionalities to its touch panels and also to further integrate the touch-panel production with other flat panels, Lee said.

The AUO Group as a whole plans to recruit 5,000 more employees in 2011, with AUO alone providing more than 3,000 job opportunities, said Lee, indicating that the group will continue to ramp up its panel capacity, including OLED panels.

AUO will begin the production of OLED displays in 2011 although there are still bottlenecks regarding the reduction of raw material costs and power consumption for the panels, Lee stated.

AUO's solar wafer plant is slated for volume production in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the company will also kick off a NT$73 billion (NT$2.48 billion) investment project for the manufacture of solar cell modules.

Revenues generated from solar related products will account for less than 5% of the company's total revenues in 2011 and the company aims to raise the ratio to 10% within 2-5 years.