President Tsai meets ASML executives
On the afternoon of November 15, President Tsai Ing-wen met with a group of executives of the Dutch corporation ASML Holding N.V. led by Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Frédéric Schneider-Maunoury. In remarks, President Tsai thanked ASML for taking concrete action to invest in Taiwan and for working with Taiwan's semiconductor industry to improve semiconductor technology worldwide. The president also expressed confidence that Taiwan's advanced semiconductor production capacity will benefit regional and global economic revitalization, and said she hopes to deepen cooperation with democratic allies to create more secure and resilient global supply chains.
A translation of President Tsai's remarks follows:
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to Taiwan. First, I would like to thank ASML for affirming Taiwan's investment environment and continuing to expand its investment here. Taiwan's semiconductor industry has evolved into a world-leading industrial chain over the past several decades, and has become a focus of international attention, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The semiconductor sector is built on global partnerships. No single partnership or country can achieve excellence, but when we work together, we can realize a production model of maximum sophistication and efficiency.
The collaboration between ASML and Taiwan is an ideal example of this. ASML continues to work side by side with Taiwan, and, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and other Taiwanese enterprises, has enjoyed robust growth since it established a local subsidiary in Hsinchu in 2003. In particular, under the efforts of ASML Senior Director Tony Chao (趙中榛), Taiwan has become the world's only manufacturing base for reticle handlers used in deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography.
To meet TSMC's advanced manufacturing needs, ASML has established the Global EUV (extreme ultraviolet) Training Center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, and will also make Taiwan a base for research, development, and manufacturing of optical metrology equipment for EUV wafer lithography on the 2-nanometer process node. Mutual cooperation between Taiwan and ASML helps strengthen our positions in the semiconductor supply chain, making us global pacesetters while ensuring our competitive advantages and leading roles.
Amid changes to the international economic landscape, we are confident that Taiwan's advanced semiconductor production capacity can benefit regional and global economic revitalization. We also hope that Taiwan and our democratic allies can further deepen cooperation to create more secure and resilient global supply chains.
To achieve this goal, we will develop policies to provide the greatest possible support to our semiconductor industry, and we hope that our longtime partners such as ASML can keep investing in the research and development of leading-edge manufacturing equipment in Taiwan.
We are supporting the sector through policy measures as well as through the pursuit of maximum administrative efficiency. When ASML announced additional investments in northern Taiwan, Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) led our government in quickly setting up a dedicated team to coordinate services, providing the utmost assistance to ASML in navigating the relevant administrative procedures.
At a time when the world is focused on and concerned about Taiwan, we thank ASML for taking concrete action to invest in Taiwan and for working with Taiwan's semiconductor industry to improve semiconductor technology worldwide. I am sure this will help debunk the rumors exaggerating the risks concerning Taiwan.
I want to emphasize that these plans to continue investment in Taiwan are absolutely steps in the right direction. Our government will continue to provide assistance in these plans, and I trust that through our joint efforts, we can continue to bolster Taiwan's semiconductor industry cluster. I look forward to Taiwan and ASML setting many more milestones in our cooperation.
In his remarks, ASML Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Frédéric Schneider-Maunoury thanked the Taiwanese government for its continued support of the semiconductor industry, and called Taiwan a major player in the global semiconductor industry, observing that Taiwan holds a leading position in advanced node manufacturing and is home to the world's largest installed base of EUV machines.
Noting that ASML currently has five sites and employs more than 4,500 people in Taiwan, ASML Executive Vice President Schneider-Maunoury said that ASML continues to expand its team in Taiwan, including in logistics and support as well as in development and engineering operations.
ASML Executive Vice President Schneider-Maunoury stated that, with the vigorous development of the global semiconductor industry, the contribution of Taiwan's semiconductor industry is obvious to all countries in the world. He said that ASML will continue to expand its investment in Taiwan to support its Taiwanese customers and the global semiconductor industry, and concluded his remarks by thanking President Tsai and the government for their steady support to help the semiconductor industry thrive into the future.
Vice Premier Shen, who accompanied ASML Executive Vice President Schneider-Maunoury and his colleagues at the meeting, thanked ASML for its continued investment in Taiwan, and noted that ASML's expansion in northern Taiwan, construction on which is set to begin next July, will mark the company's largest-ever investment in Taiwan. He added that cooperation between Taiwan's semiconductor industry and ASML will benefit global supply chains and make them more resilient.
Also present at the meeting was ASML Executive Vice President of Manufacturing Andries Hofman.