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.
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