欧洲半导体产业寻求迫切的政府行动

作者：Laura Peters, Editor-in-Chief -- Semiconductor International   2009-04-03   点击:102

2009年3月27日，欧洲委员会视察了位于比利时鲁汶(Leuven)市的独立半导体研究机构IMEC(Interuniversity Microelectronics Center)。数名欧洲委员会总理事(Directorate General)与法国、荷兰及英国政府的相关负责人考察了IMEC的设施。

SEMI表示，在到07年的3年间，欧洲在世界半导体市场的产能份额已缩小至原来的3/4左右。业界的设备投资方面，亚洲和美国占75%，面向欧洲的投资与之相比规模要小。视察IMEC的欧洲委员会纳米电子部门的Dirk Beernaert表示，“为了使欧洲的半导体产业继续保持技术创新能力及竞争力，欧盟(EU)、各成员国政府及其他公共机构要与产业界合作，紧急采取有力措施进行支援”。

At a strategic meeting Friday at the IMEC facility in Leuven, Belgium, European semiconductor executives called for strong and urgent action by the European Union and national governments so that Europe can remain competitive in the semiconductor industry. “We need to find a European solution, and to back it up with the EU is a challenge — it takes time and if we wait too long, some of these companies might not exist anymore,” said Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe, in an interview with Semiconductor International following the meeting.

Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe

SEMI Europe, with support from the European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA), organized a meeting of more than 40 representatives from several directorate generals of the European Commission, to discuss the urgent need for the European semiconductor industry to remain the cornerstone of Europe’s competitiveness and innovation. “Our duty is to let the representatives at very high levels of the national governments and the EU know of the urgency of the matter; I think we made quite good progress on that today,” Kundert said. This meeting happens to coincide with the likely bankruptcy of Qimonda, a maker of memory devices that employs 3500 people in Saxony and 1500 in Munich.

Kundert said that the full-scale rescue of Qimonda would be quite difficult. Addressing the bigger picture, he said, “These projects are too big to be solved by one company or a single nation.” Still, Kundert is optimistic that Europe is moving in the right direction, arguing that “the situation has improved, we can clearly say.”

Francois Escher, co-chair of ESIA Competitiveness Task Force

In a statement, Francois Escher, co-chair of the ESIA Competitiveness Task Force, said, “As part of a dedicated innovation-led industrial policy, a globally competitive European industry needs effective measures in place along the four innovation pillars of R&D, lead markets, manufacturing and education. Europe is already on the right track in identifying and prioritizing today’s and tomorrow’s major societal needs.”

At the SEMI Brussels Forum in December 2008, Enrico Villa, senior advisor at STMicroelectronics NV (Geneva), argued that Europe’s taxation policies, industrial incentives, labor costs and labor flexibility are “not competitive compared to Asia.” Such policies have led to a decline in Europe’s share of the chip market from 21% to 16% since 2000.

In October, SEMI released a white paper eliciting its “Six Recommendations to the European Union and National Governments to Increase Europe’s Microelectronic Industry Competitiveness.”