A Facebook post from Mr Foong Swee Fong wherein he writes that Singapore has “nothing to boast about” in terms of achievements in the semiconductor industry from Sunday (Oct 2) has gone on to be widely shared online.
“Taiwan, Korea, and Japan can rightfully be proud of their homegrown semiconductor giants, but Singapore, in this respect, has nothing to boast about as it is just riding on the coattails of foreign MNCs,” he wrote.
Mr Foong posted a screenshot of an article about the country’s achievements in the semiconductor industry in The Straits Times on Oct 2.
He called it “propaganda” that made him “cringe.”
The article said that Singapore has “made its mark in the semiconductor supply chain as a global node” and “accounts for about 11 per cent of the global semiconductor market and 5 per cent of wafer capacity; 20 per cent of semiconductor equipment is manufactured here.”
Mr Foong went on to question the premise of the ST piece, writing that “that the whole boast is based” on foreign multinational companies such as American firms Applied Materials and Micron Technology, GlobalFoundries from Abu Dhabi, and UMC from Taiwan.
The operations of these firms in Singapore are “partly due to irresistible incentives dangled by the government,” he added.
However, he underlined that the bulk of the money earned goes back to the countries of origin of these multinational companies and not to Singapore.
He acknowledged that there are some local SMEs in the industry, but these are too small to have any real bargaining power, warning that if the MNCs should pull out of Singapore, “the whole ecosystem collapses.”
Mr Foong added that “for Singaporeans in general, it is debatable if the benefits (are) commensurate with the cost. Resources used by foreign MNCs cannot be used by Singaporeans to pursue their dreams, and excessive demand for limited resources pushes up the cost of living for everyone.”
He also noted that Singapore once had its own semiconductor firm called Chartered Semiconductor (CSM), but called it a “shame” that it was sold to GlobalFoundries in 2010.
Netizens who have commented on Mr Foong’s post have agreed with many of his points.
/TISG
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