China plans additional props for IC industry

Recognizing the strategic value of the IC industry to the state, the China government has declared that it will provide much-needed support to boost the chip sector over the next five years, according to a Xinhua report quoting Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Yang Xueshan.

The goal is for China-made IC sales to exceed 330 billion yuan (about $50 billion) and meet 27.5 percent of domestic demand in 2015, Xinhua quoted Yang as saying.

Xinhua is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China.

According to the report, Yang said that China must aid the development of the IC sector because it lags behind the U.S., Japan, South Korea and other countries in terms of providing state support. Yang also revealed that relevant government departments would support and coordinate IC production along with links to research, manufacturing and marketing during the country's 12th Five-Year Program to cover the 2011 to 2015 period.

Over that period the Chinese chip industry is charged with producing a series of ICs based on Chinese intellectual property rights, the report quoted Yang as saying. This mandate underscores the need for equipment companies serving the Chinese market to use China-made chips. The report said the government wants 30 percent of IC manufacturing for China's major enterprises to be done domestically.

China's IC sales totaled about $22 billion in 2010, representing 8.6 percent of the global market, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The MIIT expects China's IC market to top $180 billion in 2015.

- Peter Clarke
??EE Times