Taiwan’s foreign ministry, on Saturday (February 25) said that the United States-led “Fab 4” or “Chip 4” semiconductor alliance held its first meeting of senior officials last week. The officials from four countries, Taiwan, the US, Japan and South Korea took part in the conversation which was centred around maintaining the resilience of the semiconductor supply chain. However, the ministry did not mention which officials were a part of the meeting.
The virtual meeting between the “US-East Asia Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience Working Group”, or “Fab 4” the senior officials took place on February 16 after months of coordination, reported Reuters. The “Fab” in the name refers to a shorthand of an industry term for the fabrication plants where chips are made and used for virtually everything from fridges to fighter jets.
The countries that are a member of this group in the Indo-Pacific region is home to some of the world’s largest contract chip makers including, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, South Korean memory chip giants Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and SK Hynix with Japan being the supplier of materials and equipment required to make the semiconductors.
The first meeting of the group was held in September last year after a two-year global chip crunch which had prompted car manufacturers to halt production and exposed the larger supply chain issues.
In a statement, the Taiwanese foreign ministry said, “The focus of the discussions of the participating quartet at the meeting was mainly on how to maintain the resilience of the semiconductor supply chain and explore the possible future cooperation directions of all parties”.
It added, “As an important member of the Indo-Pacific region, our country also plays a key role in the global semiconductor industry, and has deep economic and trade relations with countries in the region.” This comes as the four countries have moved to boost cooperation and collaboration after growing threats from China.
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