(Invest in China) Interview with President of Merck China: The "Golden Decade" of China's Semiconductor Industry has just begun
China News Service, Beijing, March 23. Title: Interview with President of Merck China: The "Golden Decade" of China's Semiconductor Industry has just begun
China News Agency reporter Li Xiaoyu
Chips have never affected the nerves of all parties as they do now.
Affected by factors such as the faster-than-expected production recovery of global auto companies, the increase in the number of people working at home under the epidemic, and the rising demand for personal computers, the chip shortage dilemma is intensifying.
According to An Gaobo, President of Merck China and Managing Director of Electronic Technology China, the "golden age" of semiconductors has just begun, especially in the Chinese market.
In an interview with a reporter from China News Agency recently, Agobo said that with the accelerated development of 5G, big data, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, the global market's demand for more sophisticated, energy-saving, and small-sized electronic products is increasing. The global demand for more powerful chips continues to grow.
He said that China consumes nearly half of the world's chips and is investing heavily in the development of its own semiconductor industry.
Especially in the recently announced "14th Five-Year Plan" and the 2035 long-term goal outline, China has put forward many related policy promotion plans around chips, which allows Merck to see massive market opportunities.
"The'Golden Decade' of China's semiconductor industry has just begun," Angobo said. Now is the right time for Merck to further invest in China's next-generation electronic products.
At present, Merck has officially renamed its "High Performance Materials" business "Electronic Technology".
The business consists of three business divisions: semiconductor technology, display technology and appearance technology, providing a series of products and solutions based on material innovation.
In addition to the electronic technology business, as a global pharmaceutical giant, Merck is also strengthening cooperation with China in the field of life and health.
In July 2020, Merck's world's largest life science technology and training cooperation center has settled in Pudong, Shanghai.
"In the past 20 years, I have seen the tremendous development of China's pharmaceutical industry. If you pay attention to oncology and other therapeutic areas, especially the research of CAR-T therapy, China has been at the forefront. I think that in the development of effective vaccines, China has come to the fore. The capabilities are here, the talents are here, and China’s ability to operate new drugs is increasingly being proven.” An Gaobo said that in China, new and innovative drugs are being included in the National Medical Insurance Drug List earlier, which is a great opportunity for widespread promotion. New drugs are very important.
In the future, Merck will cooperate with biomedical companies in China and the Asia-Pacific region through the newly established central platform to improve the quality and safety of medicines, and provide training and industrial technology transfer services.
He said that China has become one of Merck's most important strategic markets, both in terms of market size and growth capabilities.
Especially in the fields of general medicine and electronic products in the fields of oncology and healthcare, China is already Merck's largest market.
In addition, China’s innovation ecosystem is developing in depth, and talent, academic, and high-tech industries are gathering and integrating in a very effective way.
Can provide favorable conditions for the realization of innovation.
In Agobo’s view, China is becoming more and more open to new ideas and new investors, and the strong resilience of economic growth is obvious to all. All of these make Merck optimistic about the prospects of the Chinese market.
In the future, Merck will strive to build China's most localized multinational company and further integrate itself into China.
Merck is a technology company with medicine and health, life sciences and electronic technology as its main business. It has a history of 88 years in China.
Currently, Merck has a number of important investments in China, including the establishment of a global biopharmaceutical R&D center in Beijing, a display material R&D center and a life science laboratory in Shanghai, and a photolithography materials R&D center in Suzhou.
(Finish)