European electronics industry CEOs call on European Commission to bolster sector’s competitiveness

By Laith Altimime

In a bid to reinvigorate Europe’s electronics strategy and strengthen the region’s position in key emerging technologies, European electronics industry CEOs in June called on public and private actors to accelerate collaboration at the European Union and national levels. The CEO’s proposed new strategic actions include creating a European Design Alliance to pool the expertise of design houses and forming an electronics education and skills task force consisting of representatives from industry, research, European institutions, member states and SEMI.

The business executive’s calls – embodied in “Boosting Electronics Value Chain in Europe, a report submitted to Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, of the European Commission – come as global competition in the electronics industry intensifies. The document highlights Europe’s need to buttress its position in artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous driving and personalized healthcare – applications that rely on new semiconductor architectures, materials, equipment and design methodologies.

The European semiconductor industry plans to pour more than 50 billion EUR into technology development and innovation by 2025, deepening its investments in research, innovation and manufacturing to help drive Europe’s digital transformation.

For its part, SEMI, as the industry association connecting the electronics value chain, is well-positioned to bring together member companies and public actors to address key challenges facing the sector. This year in April, SEMI announced that Electronics System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance) will join SEMI, adding key electronics design companies to SEMI membership and unlocking the full potential of collaboration between electronics design and manufacturing.  With the ESD Alliance, SEMI adds the product design segment to the electronics supply chain, streamlining and connecting the full ecosystem. The integration also promises to support the industry coordination required to develop specialized (AI) chips used in various smart applications.

SEMI Europe is also accelerating its education and workforce development activities. SEMI Europe this year created its Workforce Development Council Europe, chaired by Emir Demircan, SEMI Europe’s senior manager of public policy, based in Brussels. The council is designed to connect electronics industry human resources representatives with members to evolve best practices in hiring that help Europe gain, train and retain world-class talent.

Other SEMI Europe workforce development activities include the following:

• SEMI member forums across Europe are helping young talent with career opportunities in the semiconductor industry.
• In November, SEMICON Europa will host a Career Café where STEM students will explore careers in electronics design and manufacturing.

• With the participation of representatives from the European Commission, SEMI Europe’s Industry Strategy Symposium in April focused on strategies for attracting more skilled workers into electronics design and manufacturing.

Looking ahead, semiconductor sales is forecast to reach USD 1 trillion by 2030. The global semiconductor industry is at the heart a new era of connectivity, developing breakthrough solutions for ascendant data-driven technologies such as AI and Internet of Things (IoT). SEMI Europe’s role in strengthening the region’s position in the global electronics industry to help drive this extraordinary growth is critical. SEMI Europe will continue to foster public-private partnerships to tackle industry challenges that are too big, too risky and too costly for companies and government institutions to address alone.

Contact: Laith Altimime, President, SEMI Europe, laltimime@semi.org ; Emir Demircan, Sr Manager Public Policy, edemircan@semi.org

Originally published on the SEMI blog.