The first meeting of the Korea-Netherlands Semiconductor Dialogue kicked off in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Feb. 19 (local time). The Korean and Dutch governments agreed to hold the meeting during President Yoon Suk-yeol’s state visit to the Netherlands in December 2023. The ministries in charge of the semiconductor sector in the two countries have decided to take official steps to strengthen cooperation in the semiconductor sector.
The Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced that it held the first meeting of the Korea-Netherlands Semiconductor Dialogue with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Feb. 19. The meeting was attended by Lee Yong-pil, officer of advanced industrial policies at the MOTIE in Korea, and Serpil Tascioglu, director of topsectors and industrial policy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate from the Netherlands.
The Netherlands is considered a key country in the semiconductor supply chain. The country is home to ASML, ASM and NXP. The leaders of the two nations pledged to build a semiconductor alliance that includes governments, businesses and colleges during Yoon’s state visit to the Netherlands in December 2023. The Korea-Netherlands Semiconductor Dialogue is a ministerial-level consultative body that the two countries agreed to establish as part of the alliance.
During the dialogue, the two sides shared their semiconductor industry policies, including a plan to create a mega cluster announced in January, and discussed technical cooperation in areas such as design, equipment, and packaging. They also discussed a plan to diversify the program by cross-hosting Korea-Netherlands advanced semiconductor academic meetings and expanding the number of participating colleges and universities and institutions to address human resources development, a common issue in the global semiconductor industry.
The two sides also agreed that it is necessary to strengthen connections between the industries of the two countries to stabilize semiconductor supply chains. To this end, they also engaged in a dialog about ways to support new business opportunities by holding business round tables such as Korea-Netherlands advanced semiconductor training programs when they are necessary.
As the two sides agreed to hold the semiconductor dialogue annually, the foundation has been laid to continuously review the status of semiconductor cooperation and strengthen links for semiconductor cooperation between the two countries’ governments, industries and academia, experts say.
“As key players in semiconductor supply chains, cooperation between the two countries in the semiconductor field is expected to contribute significantly not only to strengthening the competitiveness of the two countries’ industries but to stabilizing global supply chains,” Lee Yong-pil said.