Computers News
- Intel breaks ground for 1st plant in China
Date: 10-Sep-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
INTEL Corp. held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday in the northern city of Dalian for its first chip factory in China. The plant is aimed at expanding Intel's presence in the booming Chinese computer industry and boosting the country's campaign to lure foreign high-tech investment.
The US$2.5-billion facility, one of the biggest single foreign investments in China, will be Intel's first silicon-wafer fabrication plant in Asia and its eighth worldwide. It is due to open in 2010 with a workforce of 1,200.
The new factory, dubbed 'Fab 68,'will produce chipsets, which connect microprocessors to other computer components. Intel says it chose not to equip the plant with its most advanced processes because of U.S. restrictions on high-tech exports.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, a deputy chairman of China's main planning agency and the mayor of Dalian, which is a growing center for the software and computer industries.
'China is obviously such a booming economy. We very much felt like it was important to be near our customers,'said Kirby Jefferson, the Dalian plant's general manager.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel says China already is its second-largest market after the United States and is expected to be the world's biggest information technology market by 2010.
Foreign investment in China's computer and other high-tech industries is growing as companies set up factories and research centers. But the government wants more and offers tax breaks and other incentives to lure investors.
Premier Wen Jiabao appealed last week to foreign companies to do more research in China. He promised to protect intellectual property, a key concern for many companies, which are reluctant to transfer advanced know-how to China for fear it will be stolen amid rampant product piracy.
'What we hope is that growth enterprises and emerging companies will base more of their research and development centers in China,'Wen said Thursday in Dalian at the World Economic Forum, a gathering of Chinese and foreign business leaders.
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