Taiwan believes in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) first European fab, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Tuesday, during a visit to the plant’s construction site in Dresden, Germany.
It is a project “Taiwan believes in as much as it believes in TSMC itself,” Tsai said during the visit after being welcomed by European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (ESMC) president Christian Koitzsch at the construction site in “Silicon Saxony.”
Koitzsch and TSMC Europe general counsel Gunnar Thomas briefed Tsai before she met with Taiwanese engineers to learn about their progress on the fab’s construction and their daily lives in Germany.
Photo: Screen grab from former president Tsai Ing-wen’s Facebook page
Tsai also presented Taiwan-shaped pins to the engineers, encouraging them to “work hard overseas, but never forget Taiwan.”
ESMC is a joint venture between TSMC, Bosch, Infineon and NXP. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in August last year, and the plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.
The Dresden plant is TSMC’s first major investment in Europe and the largest semiconductor investment in the city’s history, Dresden Mayor Dirk Hilbert said.
The city government’s top priority is to ensure that administrative issues are handled smoothly and to prepare infrastructure — including power, water and transportation — for the plant’s launch, Hilbert said.
The plant is expected to create more than 5,000 jobs in the city, he said.
“We want every professional coming to Dresden from around the world to feel at home,” he added.
The city is cooperating closely with TSMC and ESMC to plan housing, schools and public transportation for incoming employees, to “make them feel the city’s hospitality and warmth from day one,” he said.
Dresden is also building Germany’s largest and most modern vocational school to train more than 2,000 electrical and electronic specialists, Hilbert said.
As the Silicon Saxony cluster — home to more than 500 companies and research institutes, such as Infineon, GlobalFoundries and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft — continues to expand, the demand for skilled workers is growing rapidly, he said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS