News item | 29-01-2025 | 13:30
Representatives from the semiconductor sector and cabinet members have started a structural public-private consultation platform, Semicon Board NL, chaired by Minister Beljaarts (Economic Affairs). Participants prepare a sector agenda towards 2035 and discuss assignments, ambitions and investments that are needed for this leading industry. The Netherlands is and wants to stay a global player in this.
ASM, ASML, Axelera AI, Nearfield Instruments, NXP, Smartphotonics, VDL ETG, High Tech sector High Tech NL on behalf of SMEs, Holland High Tech (Cooperation Research, Business, Government) and the Ministers Klever (Foreign Trade and Development Aid), Bruins ( Education, culture and science) are the regular participants.
Minister Beljaarts (Economic Affairs): “It is necessary to keep our semiconductor sector innovative and competitive. In this way we ensure the preservation of our prosperity and safety in Europe and the Netherlands. Better cooperation including public financing helps to keep innovative companies, suppliers and researchers here at a global level. With the Semicon Board NL we can work well on themes such as knowledge, research & development, but also on challenges such as sufficient talent and venture capital to continue to grow. ”
Semicon Sector Agenda 2035
The public-private semicon sector agenda 2035 will consist of four themes. An important part is the international competitiveness of the sector. The Netherlands wants to take the lead in this to arrive at a so-called Coalition of the Willing in which the EU countries involved and the European Commission work together on policy and stimulation. This also concerns extra commitment to innovation and industrial policy for technologies such as photonics, AI, 6G and Quantum, but also on new forms of both design (design) and packaging (stacking or packaging) of chips.
The other three themes are sufficient talent, the availability of venture capital for growing SMEs in this sector and improving European resilience. This involves, for example, the availability of raw materials and tackling risks of disturbances in the supply chain.
Innovation program
64 Companies and (knowledge) organizations today also hand over their own semicon innovation program under the name ChipNL to Minister Beljaarts. With this, the semiconductor sector itself wants to strengthen the global strong position of the Netherlands through innovation. For example, by improving the design and production methods for chips and machines, the productivity of the sector can be increased and the Netherlands remains a global leader in the semiconductor sector.