Premier Su Tseng-chang on Thursday received a Ministry of Economic Affairs briefing on Taiwan's competitive advantages and strategies to maintain its lead in the global semiconductor industry. The Taiwanese semiconductor industry has established a complete upstream, midstream and downstream supply chain, the premier said, and is among the best in the world for contract manufacturing of wafers, and the design, packaging and testing of integrated circuits. In 2021, Taiwan's semiconductor industry boasted output value surpassing NT$4 trillion (US$142.7 billion), ranking the second-highest globally and evincing its dominant position.
The government is actively working to meet the needs of the industry by raising administrative efficiency through cross-agency cooperation, the premier said. To provide land for development, the Executive Yuan has already approved the new construction or expansion of seven science parks, and has upgraded "export processing zones" into "technology industrial parks." To cultivate new talent, five colleges have been inaugurated for the study of semiconductor technology, directly fostering the skilled personnel required by the semiconductor industry.
At a time when the world is keenly increasing investments in semiconductor supply chains, Taiwan already occupies a unique and leading position because it had an early start in the process. The government also built the science parks to serve as semiconductor industrial development bases, possessing the advantages of professional division of labor and clustering effects, the premier said.
After the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and especially in the last year, countries around the world have been experiencing sharp shortages in semiconductor chips, underscoring Taiwan's importance in the supply chain. This also highlights the advantages accrued by Taiwan's semiconductor industry over long years of investing in research and development, improving operations and building client relationships. Taiwan's system of democratic rule of law also shows the world that we are a reliable and trustworthy partner, Premier Su said.