Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that a sustainable supply of high-quality and dedicated engineers, and a low turnover rate are contributing factors to Taiwan’s leadership in the global chipmaking industry.
Chang delivered a speech on Taiwan’s competitive advantages in the chip sector at the 70th anniversary of the International Association of Judges (IAJ) in Taipei.
Chang founded the world’s largest contract chipmaker, or foundry, in 1987. The chipmaker now offers research and development, wafer fabrication and advanced packaging, which are capital and technology-intensive businesses, he said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Chips made by TSMC can be found in national defense, smartphones and vehicles, he said.
In developed countries, about 2.5 billion people use Taiwan-made chips for the devices they use in their daily lives, he added.
As chip manufacturing is a crucial industry and the only crucial industry for Taiwan to be a leader, it needs to defend its leadership position, Chang said.
Photo: CNA
With a highly educated population, Taiwan has plenty of high-quality and dedicated engineers, Chang said.
Those young people are willing to work in the tough chip manufacturing environment, wearing heavy outfits that look like space suits, he added.
TSMC has an employee turnover rate of about 4 to 5 percent annually, which is much lower than the 15 to 20 percent at US companies during the 1970s and the 1980s, he said, adding that a high turnover was “certainly a disaster problem” as it takes years to train technicians and engineers, he said.
The US used to have the most advanced wafer fabrication technology in the world, but things have changed, he said.
TSMC now offers the world’s most advanced foundry technology, outpacing Intel Corp.
Taiwan’s foundry-centric semiconductor fabrication supply chain is also one advantage, with major equipment suppliers ASML Holding NV and Applied Materials Inc setting up service centers in Taiwan, he said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday approved an additional US$4.5 billion (US$140.7 million) funding for TSMC’s fab construction in Arizona.
The new funding would help enhance TSMC’s partnership with customers, and would help grow Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and deepen its connections with supply chains, it said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also gave a speech at the IAJ event, saying the government is striving to reach the highest international standards in judicial independence and human rights protection.
“We cannot take judicial independence for granted. It must be continuously upheld through individual commitments and institutional protections in Taiwan,” Tsai said.
The last time the IAJ held its annual meeting in Taiwan, in 1999, it adopted the Universal Charter of the Judge — a “landmark document” that has helped enshrine the value of judicial independence, Tsai said.
Serving as a blueprint for protecting judicial independence, the charter states that judges should “ensure the rights of everyone to a fair trial” and “exercise judicial powers free from social, economic and political pressure,” she said.
The nation’s commitment to democracy “drives our efforts to build a judicial system that is transparent, accountable and responsive to the people it serves,” she said.
The citizen judge system, where professional judges are joined by members of the public in trials, was launched this year as an effort to ensure greater fairness and trust in the judicial system, she added.
Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) said in his speech that as judicial departments are facing various challenges and difficulties in a rapidly changing global environment, “it is indispensable that judges around the world strengthen their cooperation and exchanges” to safeguard freedom, judicial independence and human rights.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS