Cai Mingjie urged the government to introduce a complete chip bill (photo by reporter Hong Youfang)

[Reporter Hong Youfang/Hsinchu Report] Cai Mingjie, chairman of MediaTek, pointed out that recently, Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea have frequently offered high subsidies or tax breaks to reward the localization of semiconductor manufacturing. The role of the government is becoming more and more important. He called on the government to introduce a complete chip bill. In addition to focusing on semiconductor manufacturing, it should also pay attention to IC design and downstream system product applications, ecosystems, software, etc., in order to cope with the huge external challenges.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) and DIGITIMES today released the "White Paper on Taiwan's IC Design Industry Policy", which puts forward 6 major suggestions from the three dimensions of overall strategy, talent policy, and operating environment. It is the first IC design industry in Taiwan's history. Policy White Paper.

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Cai Mingjie served as the general consultant of the white paper. He attended today and acted as an introduction. He said that the development of Taiwan's semiconductor industry depends on the timing, location, and harmony of people.

50 years ago, due to the careful planning of the two senior ministers, Li Guoding and Sun Yunxuan, from the early establishment of the processing export zone to do the packaging and testing of semiconductor products, and later the Industrial Technology Research Institute introduced IC design and manufacturing technology from RCA. He was also one of them. Members, the time is right.

Under the trend of globalization, the promotion of national policies has made Taiwan the world's largest wafer foundry manufacturing industry in terms of output value and the world's second largest IC design industry.

He said that Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing and design capabilities were established through the technology transfer of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, and the establishment of UMC and TSMC. After that, outstanding domestic and foreign talents followed the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial model and established IC design companies one after another.

For example, the earliest SiS, Sunplus, VIA, Realtek, etc.; UMC was originally IDM, and after the IC design department was independent, companies such as Faraday, MediaTek, and Novatek were born.

In addition, 20 years ago, the policy also launched a silicon guidance plan to expand the cultivation of semiconductor talents. In addition, companies have cultivated many IC design talents in the development process, and the scale of the industry is now possible.

Cai Mingjie said that Chris Miller, the author of the popular book "Chip Wars", also mentioned in the book that the United States is indeed the leader in most types of chip design, but Taiwan's MediaTek has proved that other countries can also design chips. Taiwan, he had the opportunity to talk to him face to face about the competitiveness of Taiwan's IC industry.

Taiwan also includes Novatek, Realtek, Himax, and Phison that participated in today's forum, as well as many companies with different products, IP, and design services, all of which are very successful.

Cai Mingjie said that the added value of the semiconductor industry chain mainly comes from IC design and wafer manufacturing including Fabless and IDM companies.

The design industry is not like semiconductor manufacturing, which needs to purchase expensive equipment and create added value with brainpower. The per capita output value of IC design in Taiwan is as high as NT$20 million, which is higher than that of semiconductor manufacturing. It is also a brain-intensive software service industry.

However, compared with the American counterparts, there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially in the added value of systems and software, and there is also a gap in high-end analog ICs.

Recently, Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea have offered high subsidies or tax incentives at every turn to reward the localization of semiconductor manufacturing; in order to meet the needs of future emerging technologies such as self-driving cars, high-performance computing, and AI, IC designs with advanced processes are required.

In addition to the United States, many companies in China have already deployed and received policy subsidies. The European Union also needs to invest in the establishment of an ecosystem of high-end manufacturing processes, with more emphasis on IC design.

Affected by the new ban announced by the US BIS on October 7 last year, China instead allowed funds to flow to mature process IC products that were not subject to the ban. Taiwan's small and medium-sized IC design companies will bear the brunt. Facing future competition and future technology development trends, the current It is the right time for the government to rationally adjust national industrial policies and resources according to the time, circumstances, and characteristics of different industries.

Cai Mingjie said that Taiwan's talent issue is still the most important challenge in the future due to the sequelae of the education reform policy and the declining birthrate. Talent cultivation requires short-, medium-, and long-term strategic adjustments.

At present, all countries are well aware of the key position of the semiconductor industry, and the role of the government is becoming increasingly important.

It is hoped that the government should introduce a complete "Taiwan Chip Act", which combines understanding of the industry, policy planning, and implementation plan, and is determined to implement it.

More importantly, not only focus on semiconductor manufacturing, but also IC design and downstream system product applications, ecosystems, software and other aspects.

Mingjie Tsai hopes that the white paper can express the opportunities and future challenges of Taiwan's IC design industry, especially on government policy and talent issues, and can arouse the attention of relevant units.

I also hope that people from all walks of life will work together to seriously think about the problems and countermeasures, and minimize the use of exaggerated words such as the Armada and the national team. The failure of the "Two Trillion Double Stars" project 20 years ago is a living example. After all, there are still many challenges in the future. Huge, I look forward to continuous investment in industry, education and research, and to improve the overall strength with a pragmatic attitude and reality.

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