Taiwan is planning to team up with the Czech Republic to build a semiconductor cluster in the European country, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Friday.
Wu, who led a Taiwanese delegation at the annual GLOBSEC Forum held in Prague from Friday to today, said in a news conference that Taiwan seeks to foster cooperation between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and its counterparts in Czechia.
Such cooperation is expected to transform the country into one of the most important semiconductor clusters in Europe over the next three to five years, he added.
Photo: CNA
As TSMC is building an advanced wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, the company needs a comprehensive supply chain in Europe, he said.
Sound infrastructure including a stable supply of electricity and water and a large pool of excellent engineers are the necessary conditions for Taiwanese companies to consider for their overseas investments, he added.
Taiwan and Czechia would work closely to make sure these conditions are met, Wu said, adding that Taiwanese investors would also take into account investment incentives offered by the Czech government, Wu said.
On Aug. 20, TSMC broke ground on a 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden through a joint venture called European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (ESMC), which includes Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG and NXP Semiconductors NV.
Total investment is estimated to top 10 billion euros (US$11.1 billion), with TSMC holding a 70 percent stake and its three partners holding a 10 percent stake each.
The EU Commission approved 5 billion euros in subsidies for the project under the EU Chips Act.
In Taipei, the National Development Council (NDC) on Saturday said in a statement that Czech Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova said her country would be glad to provide tax incentives to support Taiwanese investments in the nation’s semiconductor industry as Taiwan is one of the most important democratic allies of Czechia in Asia.
Adamova made the remarks during a meeting with Wu, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫), NDC head Paul Liu (劉鏡清), National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) and Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺), who are also part of the Taiwan delegation at the GLOBSEC forum, the NDC said.
The delegation held multiple meetings with Czech government officials to discuss bilateral economic cooperation such as how to reinforce economic resilience, meet demand from semiconductor suppliers to facilitate their investments, build an industrial cluster and cultivate a talent pool, the NDC said.
In June, another Taiwan delegation, including representatives of semiconductor firms, visited Prague to survey the country’s investment environment and exchange views with Czech representatives about potential investments there, the NDC said, adding that some of the delegates in the June trip have expressed interest in investing in Czechia.
In addition to cooperation in the semiconductor industry, both sides would team up to develop other high-end technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) amid the AI boom, the NDC said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS