Taipei, Nov. 7, 2012 (CENS)--IEK of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) cautioned yesterday (Nov. 6) that via the combination of government policy and market forces, mainland China is vigorously developing the IC design industry and the mainland Chinese IC design industry will be able to catch up with Taiwan by 2015.
Leading domestic IC design houses, however, are confident that they will be able to keep their edge over Chinese counterparts in the coming years. Realtek expressed that it’s unlikely for China’s IC design industry to overtake Taiwan, since China’s IC design capability still lags behind Taiwan by far. However, the company is worried about the possibility for Chinese companies to poach Taiwanese talent, since the gap between the salaries of Chinese engineers and Taiwanese counterparts is narrowing and even disappears. The situation will be aggravated by the elimination of free-tax incentive for hi-tech industry next year.
Elan Microelectronics also believed that chance for the Chinese IC design industry to surpass Taiwan by 2015 is not high, since Taiwanese firms are major suppliers of built-in chips for PC, notebook PC, smart phone, and tablet PC on the global market.
MediaTek, nonetheless, urged the government to lend full support to Taiwan’s IC design industry, in emulation of the practice of China and South Korea.
At a seminar on the development trend of the hi-tech industry in 2013 held by IEK yesterday, Tsai Kin-kun, IEK industrial analyst, remarked that Taiwan’s IC design industry is moving from the realm of PC to smart handheld devices at an accelerated pace.
IEK predicted that output value of Taiwan’s IC design industry will grow 6.5% to NT$410.6 billion this year and will further advance 5.8% to NT$434.5 billion next year. Sales of chips for smart handheld devices will account for 19.5% of the total sales of Taiwan’s IC design industry this year, compared with 14.8% last year.
Taiwan’s IC design industry now ranks second place worldwide, trailing only the U.S. Under the vigorous support of its government, mainland China’s IC design industry is developing rapidly and has rooted firmly on the indigenous low-end market. IEK expected that China’s IC design industry will catch up with Taiwan by 2015.
(by Philip Liu)