The Asia Pacific Headhunter

Vietnam alternative to China & India?

Link: Vietnam ready to take on India, China? - Business - News - ZDNet Asia.

Vietnam is emerging as a viable alternative to China and India for multinationals looking to invest in Asia.  Seen as "a hybrid between China and India", Vietnam is capable of hosting chip and computer manufacturing plants, as well as software development.

Vietnam grew 8.4 percent in 2005, overtaking India as Asia's second fastest-growing economy but trailing closely behind China's 10.2 percent. The Vietnamese tech market was also worth approximately US$800 million last year, and is expected to grow about 20 percent each year.

Intel has made it's decision about Vietnam with building its US$300M+ chip assembly and testing plant in Ho Chi Minh City. It'll be interesting to see how the Vietnam market grows in the next few years.

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The new insurance schemes today are not fishy at all. This direct insurance approach is equally appreciated amongst the clients as well. This is why health insurance companies are having a blast. Due to increasing consumer awareness, even national insurance plans have started including personal perks like boat insurance etc, to lure their clientele.

Intel to build First Asia Fab in China

Link: Intel's First Asia Fab Goes To China, Not India.

Intel has announced its plans to build its first semiconductor fabrication plant ($2.5 billion) in Asia in Dalian, China. Intel will be investing $4 billion overall in China and will be closer to the Asia Pacific market, which make up 50% of its net revenue, and customers in China such as Lenovo Group and Dell.

It's interesting to see the Indian perspective, as it pursues a fabrication industry to add to its already successful chip designing industry to complete a full semiconductor ecosystem. The Indian government has explored and announced incentives on semiconductor policy to attract fabs to be built and running by 2010. Unfortunately, Intel was one of those they were targeting.

On top of Intel's announcement there is already a growing semiconductor fab business in China as well as a great deal of design and backend work going on. However, my contacts in region are constantly screaming out for local semiconductor engineering talent. This is not just in China but also includes Singapore and Malaysia which both have growing semiconductor industries. How they deal with the growing wage pressure and fight for talent will be an interesting one.

EETimes.com - 2007 ACE Award Winners

Link: EETimes.com - TI, NXP, Apexone nab ACE Awards China honors.

Which creative technology companies took top honors at the ACE Awards in China? Texas Instruments won Best Brand of the Year and Shanghai startup Apexone, a five-year old fabless maker of interactive multimedia communication mixed-signal integrated circuits  won Startup of the Year.

For a full list of all finalists and winners in all categories check eetchina.com.

VCs eyeing India Semiconductor

Link: Silicon spurs.

I earlier noted the shift in VC money going towards Asia Pacific, in particular China. The semiconductor industry in India is also gaining notice from VCs. With a large pool of engineers in the semiconductor sector (75,000 employed and 133,000 engineering graduates each year) and proximity to the growing market of end-customers, India is set to take off. While fab semicom is the talk right now, fabless is still the continuing trend and would seem the easier move. The investment required to build fabs and a foundry business would be a difficult one.

I currently have multiple openings for semiconductor engineers in Singapore, Greater China and Japan. In particular we have opportunities for Field Application Engineers (FAE's) for US fabless companies in Taiwan, Japan and Greater China. If you are interested in positions like these please get in touch!

Frontier Blog

Link: Frontier.

For my own record, Lattice Semiconductor have their own blog - Frontier: The Weblog of Innovation. I've done a lot of work in the semiconductor industry and it's great to see a company blog like this. If anyone knows of any other semiconductor blogs, please leave them in the comments.

Who are the Creative Electronics Companies in China?

Link: Global Sources to Select Technology 'Company of the Year' Winners for ACE Awards in Mainland China.

To find out which technology companies "inspire innovation among mainland China's electronics engineers", you'll have to wait for March 5th when EE Times-China will select companies for Best Brand, Outsanding Service and Startup of the year.

Finalists include:

	*Best Brand of the Year: Analog Devices, Freescale Semiconductor, ON
      Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Xilinx
    * Outstanding Service of the Year: Analog Devices, Microchip Technology,
      NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments
    * Startup of the Year: Analogix Semiconductor, Apexone Microelectronics,
      Montage Technology, Shanghai Jade Technologies, Teralane Semiconductor

India Will Become A Force In Semiconductors By 2010

Link: India Will Become A Force In Semiconductors By 2010 - News by InformationWeek.

More forecasts on the growth of the Indian Semiconductor industry. There has been a lot of movement in the last year and it will be fascinating to see how competitive India can become in this area. China is already creating a lot of noise in the industry and India with it's success in the global software industry would certainly be confident that they can match that in semiconductors. On the job front it will mean some fascinating opportunities for semiconductor engineers, executives and companies in the region.

The Emerging Indian Semiconductor Economy

When you think of India as the offshoring capital for IT services, you think of the financial services industry, call center industry and software development. Another one to soon add to that list is chip design. In Forbes Asia, Elizabeth Corcoran gives some insight to the emerging Indian semiconductor economy by following Michael Fister of Cadence Design Systems, a major provider of software and systems for chip design and testing. Cadence, based in Silicon Valley, is set to take offshoring from help desk and software development to chip design. His vision:

Offshoring chip design promises to turbocharge business, letting companies produce more products quicker than ever, and at low prices.  Imagine it and India's tech wizard will design it, Chinese factories will churn out the chips for it: It's just-in-time invention. Every new chip is the basis for a score of devices; every device sparks ideas for a host of software applications. "You build a foundation around semiconductors," notes Fister. "Then you can build industries around it."

By working closely with Indian companies and training engineers on Cadence tools for designing chips, Cadence is getting in on the ground-floor with cutting-edge work that Cadence feel will become the next new trends in electronics equipment and consumer technology. The India Semiconductor Association estimates the chip design industry will grow by 5 times to $14.4 billion with 286,000 employees by 2010.

Recruiting in the Semiconductor industry in Asia Pacific is one of the toughest areas I work. There are a myriad of dynamic smaller firms who need Field Application and Sales Engineers as well as Sales Managers. Not to mention the larger players also require a highly intelligent and bilingual workforce! Tough requirements for an extremely exciting and demanding industry. I  am currently working on Sales Positions in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong for major semiconductor companies who are clear market leaders in their niches. If you are an Engineer or Sales Professional in the semiconductor industry in Tokyo or anywhere in Greater China, feel free to email me if you have any questions about where to go next in your career.

It's exciting to see India moving ahead in the semicon industry. My experience in Silicon Valley is that there are a great number of Indian Engineers in the semiconductor industry there and I don't doubt that those ties are helping to push the growth within India itself.