(Central News Agency reporter Liu Yuting, Prague, 10th) Taiwan and Slovakia signed a semiconductor cooperation agreement on the 7th, which is the final phase of the "Taiwan-Slovakia Key Industry Development Plan" and the plan will be completed in June 2027. Li Nanyang, the representative in Slovakia, said that this four-year plan has given Slovakia new capabilities. He hopes that Slovakia will develop its semiconductor industry characteristics based on the automobile industry and play a more active role in the supply chain of Central and Eastern Europe.
A press release from the Representative Office in Slovakia stated that Li Nanyang, Vice President Peter Peciar of the Slovak University of Technology (STUBA) and Milan Ťapajna, Director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS IEE), held a signing ceremony for the fourth phase of the "Semiconductor Laboratory and R&D" cooperation agreement on the 7th.
Li Nanyang said that this four-year plan has given Slovakia capabilities that it did not have in the past. Slovakia has a complete automotive industry cluster and the development potential of electric vehicles. Therefore, the two parties have focused their cooperation on back-end packaging, module integration and testing. Semiconductor investments in Central and Eastern European countries are mostly concentrated on front-end manufacturing, while Slovakia focuses on the back-end, complementing rather than competing with neighboring countries.
Li Nanyang said that the two semiconductor laboratories currently located at the Slovak University of Technology and the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences enable Slovakia to complete the complete process of power modules from design, manufacturing to verification within the country, without the need to send them abroad.
Pechia said that cooperation with Taiwan will drive Slovakia’s independent industrial ecosystem. Slovakia established the SLOVAK CHIPS initiative in 2024, and subsequently established the SK Chips Competence Center, which received support from the EU Chip Joint Enterprise and Slovak Structural Funds. It will continue to use laboratory equipment and R&D capabilities to provide research and testing services to the local industry.
Chiapaina thanked the Taiwanese government and the Industrial Technology Research Institute for their assistance. He said that the laboratory of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences has made good research progress in new-generation semiconductor materials such as gallium nitride and gallium oxide, and can provide reliability testing under high temperature, high humidity and electrical stress, laying a solid foundation for Slovak semiconductor technology.
Talent cultivation is another focus of the plan. In early September this year, a total of eight researchers from the Slovak University of Technology and the Academy of Sciences went to Taiwan for training and visited the SEMICON Taiwan 2026 international semiconductor exhibition to learn about the latest developments in the global semiconductor industry. Starting from 2022, Taiwan has provided more than 270 scholarship places in Slovakia and Romania to reserve the talents needed for the local semiconductor industry.
Li Nanyang said that these trained engineers will stay in Slovakia and become the most reliable foundation for long-term cooperation between the two countries; he hopes that Slovakia will find its own path in the semiconductor industry, and play a more active role in the supply chain of Central and Eastern Europe with the support of the existing automotive industry foundation.
