Brazil Misses Enough Infrastructure for Chip Production
Acording to Hector Ruiz, AMD CEO, in an interview to IDGNow! in Brazil, Brazil and Latin America don’t have enough infrastructure to receive a semiconductor factory, discarding any chances to build a new AMD factory in Brazil.
US$ 4 billions in investments, and 4 years, would be needed to build a new factory in Brazil, besides more government support and fiscal incentives, tax reduction and donations, and investiments on better roads, railroads, airports and ports.
Acording to Mauro Peres, from IDC Brazil, there are 5 main points where Brazil needs considerable change in order to consider to develop the semiconductor industry:
- WORKFORCE - In a scale from 1 to 5 Brazil has a score 2. There aren’t enough formed PhD, and most of them are working in other countries
- LOCAL MARKET - Although a expanding market, there’s not enough market demand for semiconductors in Brazil, making other countries more suitable for new factories.
- INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION - There has been considerable advances since 2002 but intellectual property protection in Brazil still has much to be improved.
- TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE - Brazil needs to improve transportation infrastructure. Roads, railroads, aiports and ports are not enough to support production needs.
- IMPORT AND EXPORT BUREAUCRACY - import and export tax and bureaucracy are excessive. The time needed to dispatch are extremely long. Besides the fiscal inspectors are on a strike twice a year.
Brazilian government has extreme interest in producing semiconductors in Brazil. In 2005 Brazil has imported US$ 15 billions in eletronics, 65% of this was semiconductors components, and the it’s growing at a rate of 20% per year.
Tags: Brazil, Chips, production, Semiconductors