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German firm sets up engineering center in Hsinchu

Germany-based Festo -- the world's second-largest pneumatics automation company -- opened an engineering center in Hsinchu County yesterday.

The center, located at the Engineering Department of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) , was set up by Festo with assistance from the Department of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Festo has invested NT$50 million (US$1.5 million) into the engineering center, Liang Chen-chuan (梁振權), general manager of Festo Taiwan, said.

The company will initially station six engineers from Germany and six from Taiwan at the facility to focus on the study and development of compressed air automation components for the semiconductor and opto-electronics industries, Liang said.

With support from Taiwan's government, academic and industrial sectors, Festo's engineering center is expected to help local companies upgrade their productivity, he added.

Festo, the world's oldest manufacturer of automation with pneumatic components and systems, was set up in 1925. Its annual revenue is US$45 billion and its service network encompasses 176 countries around the world.

The German company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Industrial Technology Research Institute last December, said Tsai Hsin-yuan (蔡新源), head of the institute's engineering department.

The pact is expected to boost the government's efforts to promote the high-tech sector, particularly at a time when the ministry is advocating its "two-trillion, two-star" program aimed at making Taiwan a hub of various forms of high-technology, Tsai said.

"Didactic," which is Festo's unit of learning systems for automation and technology -- will launch an "Internet computer integrated manufacturing" program jointly with the ITRI to recruit and train professionals for Taiwan.

The German company chose Taiwan for the center after finding that Taiwan outperforms China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea in all these fields.

"The opening of Festo's Taiwan engineering center is proof of Taiwan's competitiveness in technological strength, manpower and government assistance," Tsai said.

Festo is likely to set up a research and development center in Taiwan in the future, he added.
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