Andalucía TRADE and Málaga TechPark have met with Saxony Trade and Invest, as well as with Frank Bosenberg and Stefan Ulig, general manager and manager of the Microelectronics Area of Silicon Saxony in Dresden.
Andalusia has taken part in the first General Assembly of the European Semiconductor Regions Alliance in Saxony, Germany, an appointment by which the European semiconductor regions want to further expand their cooperation. This was reaffirmed by the main representatives of the European Semiconductor Regions Alliance (ESRA) at the first annual meeting of the alliance held on Wednesday 29 May in Dresden, in which the Andalusian region took part as a member, together with the other Spanish members: Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia and the Basque Country.
Andalusia was represented by Andalucía TRADE- Agencia Empresarial para la Transformación y el Desarrollo Económico of the Junta de Andalucía (Andalucía TRADE-Business Agency for Economic Transformation and Development) and Málaga TechPark, which had the opportunity to meet with Saxony Trade and Invest during their visit to Germany, as well as with Frank Bosenberg and Stefan Ulig, the general manager and the manager of the Área de Microelectrónica (Microelectronics Area) of Silicon Saxony. Likewise, Fernando Ferrero, director of the Área de Internacionalización (Internationalisation Area) of the public agency, participated in this meeting on behalf of Andalucía TRADE, and Málaga TechPark was represented by Lourdes Cruz, its director of Business Development and Investment Attraction.
The alliance, which now includes 31 regions, was founded on the initiative of the free state of Saxony in September 2023 in Brussels. At the meeting in Dresden, organised by the free state, a common position document was adopted. At the same time, the region of Norte (Portugal) was admitted as the 31st member of the alliance.
The position document stresses the need to support the European semiconductor industry in the long term, to strengthen research and development, and to create good and sustainable framework conditions along the entire value chain. Furthermore, the signatories reaffirm the intention to cooperate even more closely on professional training in order to effectively address the shortage of skilled personnel.
In addition to the Minister President of the free state of Saxony and ESRA President Michael Kretschmer, the Regional Development Minister Thomas Schmidt and the State Secretary for Economic Affairs Thomas Kralinski took part in the first General Assembly in Dresden. A total of around 100 participants from the member regions travelled to this first major meeting.
ESRA is a platform for the regions to work with the European Commission and the European Parliament to bring together the central interests of the semiconductor industry and to articulate them at the political level. It wants to actively contribute to strengthening Europe as a semiconductor hub in global competition and to foster the competitiveness of the semiconductor industry in the regions of the European member states as well as in the entire European Union.
The alliance is committed to achieving the European Commission’s goal of doubling Europe’s global market share in semiconductor production to 20%. The regions where high-tech ecosystems are located play a decisive role in this: they provide the right framework conditions by offering the necessary complex infrastructure and research environment, without which semiconductor manufacturing would not be possible.
43,000 million euros: creation of ESRA
In the face of the high dependence on semiconductor imports, the European Commission proposed in early 2022 a comprehensive package of measures to strengthen the EU semiconductor ecosystem: the European Chips Act (ECA). The Commission’s goal is to increase Europe’s market share in global chips manufacturing from 10% today to 20% by 2030. To achieve this, the Commission wants to mobilise public and private investments of up to 43,000 million euros.
The process of setting up ESRA was initiated by Saxony in spring 2023. The free state holds the presidency in the first year as initiator, supported by the co-chair region Piedmont (Italy). The ESRA now connects the following regions: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia in Germany, Andalusia, Basque Country, Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia in Spain, Flevoland, Gelderland, North Brabant and Overijssel in the Netherlands, Carinthia and Styria in Austria, the Centre region and the North region in Portugal, Flanders in Belgium, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France, Piedmont in Italy, Tampere and Helsinki in Finland, South Moravia in the Czech Republic, Scania in Sweden, Wales in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.