The announcement by the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC that it would build a plant in Dresden met with a lot of praise from politicians. However, economists are also critical of the billions in subsidies.
Economists have expressed concerns about the planned settlement of the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC in Dresden and its subsidy. The President of the RWI-Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Christoph Schmidt, was skeptical that the German economy would get the hoped-for boost from the funding.
It is doubtful that the subsidy will bring the country more in the long term “than if you put the same funds into research and development, for example storage technologies or into the infrastructure for importing and transporting hydrogen,” said Schmidt of the “Rheinische Post”. .
hope for impetus for economic region
The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, is divided over the planned settlement of TSMC in Dresden and Intel in Magdeburg. “The planned chip factories (…) are good news, but also an uncertain bet on the future,” Fratzscher told the “Tagesspiegel”.
The state spends 15 billion euros in subsidies for these two factories alone. “This will only pay off economically if these two investments give an impetus to the entire regional economy and if innovations and new jobs are also created in other sectors and with suppliers,” said Fratzscher.
He praised the choice of locations in Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony as a “worthwhile bet on the future, which could help East Germany to develop its own economic model and differentiate itself from other regions of Germany”. However, a culture of welcome, better infrastructure and more investment in education and innovation must also be created for this. This is the only way that specialists can be attracted and the investments can be successful, emphasized the DIW President.
Semiconductor plant to be built in Dresden by 2027
TSMC had announced that it would build a semiconductor plant in Dresden by 2027. The group therefore expects that the total investment will exceed ten billion euros. Half of this sum is expected to be raised as a subsidy from the German state. In June, the US company Intel announced the opening of a plant in Magdeburg.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of the fact that Germany would now “probably develop into the largest location for semiconductor production in Europe”. The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) rated the settlement as a great benefit. The investment ensures “more European sovereignty and technological independence in a key industry”.
The Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Europe, Carsten Schneider, sees the TSMC settlement as an important innovation stimulus for the region. “The heart of European semiconductor production beats in East Germany,” said Schneider in the newspapers of the editorial network Germany.