Taiwan considers chip collaboration with Eastern European countries

Taiwan is looking at opportunities to ‘co-operate on chips’ with three Eastern European countries. Taiwan will, among other things, give money for technical training of people in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

The intentions follow a visit to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania by Kung Ming-hsin, the head of Taiwan’s National Development Council. This is reported by Reuters news agency. All three countries are said to have told Taiwan they hope to collaborate on chips, Kung said.

The countries will jointly discuss how exactly they can cooperate with each other. “The complete semiconductor ecosystem is huge and many countries can play different roles,” Kung said. He goes on to say that Taiwan will provide money in the form of grants for training technical personnel. It is not yet known in concrete terms what roles the Eastern European countries could play.

Taiwan is a major player in the chip sector, and is home to major chip manufacturer TSMC and other chip companies such as UMC and VIS, among others. Europe has been trying to strengthen its chip sector for some time, partly because of chip shortages and geopolitical tensions. To this end, the region wants to collaborate with other parties, including Taiwan and TSMC. Taiwanese politicians and diplomats were previously critical of the construction of a TSMC factory in Europe, but the company has now indicated that it is considering a new chip factory in Germany. It is not known whether TSMC will be involved in the cooperation with Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.