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Silicon Border Gets Grant for Mexicali High Tech Park
http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/article/CA485...
12/6/2004
Silicon Border Development today announced it has finalized agreements with the Mexican federal and Baja California state governments for a
development grant and an expanded exclusivity agreement for a specialized semiconductor science park in North America.
"This dual support from our North American neighbor is important in establishing momentum and moving to the next step in our development roadmap,"
said DJ Hill, chairman of Silicon Border, in a statement. "We are excited to tap the tremendous synergy that is possible between the U.S.
semiconductor industry and the Mexican manufacturing community to increase the stability and success of the global high-tech supply chain."
The federal government of Mexico and the State of Baja California are jointly providing a grant to Silicon Border Development to develop the
high-technology park in Mexicali, capital city of Baja California. The amount of the grant was not disclosed, but a portion comes from Mexico's
federal Prosoft program, formed to support technology development throughout the country.
The expanded agreement with the State of Baja California grants Silicon Border an additional 24 months of exclusivity for the development of a
technology-focused park, including commercial land use and access to water, electricity and gas in a 15-square mile area just two hours from San
Diego.
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Silicon park comes up in Mexico
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id...
MEXICALI, FEB 20: On an empty stretch of Mexican desert where nobody but cowboys now roam, developers see a new, $1 billion high-tech industrial park
dubbed the ?Silicon Border.?
California-based developers hope the chip manufacturing and assembly complex, located just south of the US border, will become a new hub of the North
American semiconductor industry and take advantage of Mexico?s cheaper labour costs.
The 15 square mile patch outside Mexicali is relatively close to the corporate headquarters of US high-tech companies and will compete with China and
Taiwan in the $200 billion global semiconductor industry.
?The project aims to capture some of the new capacity in the semiconductor industry,? said Ron Jones, the president and chief executive of Silicon
Border Development, the California- based developers behind the project.
?More and more of it is going to Asia and we believe it is prudent to have a parallel supply chain in North America,? he told Reuters in a telephone
interview.
Mexico has had problems attracting high-tech companies due to relatively low education levels, plus energy and labor costs that are often much higher
than Asia?s. Elsewhere, large-scale semiconductor projects such as Dubai?s ?Silicon Oasis? have disappointed in the past.
Still, Mexican authorities have pledged 10-year tax breaks to hi-tech companies locating to the site, which is just a two hour drive from San Diego,
in an area with abundant water, power and gas supplies, Jones said.
Jones said the science park aims to woo a variety of hi-tech businesses, including semiconductor and flat panel display makers, as well as contract
chip manufacturers known as foundry plants.
It wants to create 100,000 jobs for Mexican workers and US commuters slipping over the border each day.
The group is negotiating financing of between $100-125 million to break ground on the first stage of the five-step project as soon as August of this
year. Business leaders in Mexicali, which has 600,000 residents and three universities, have embraced the project, which they say will add value to
the traditional export assembly plant or ?maquiladora? model.
?They are looking for engineers and designers... and not just intensive labor ...so it would bring real economic benefit to Mexicali,? Federico
Prieto, the president of the Mexicali Economic Development Advisory Council told Reuters.
Industry analysts are also hopeful.
?There is a danger that we could lose a lot of our design and research activities to be closer to the manufacturers in China and Taiwan,? said
industry analyst Risto Puhakka of VLSI Research.
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