China launches $24 billion Integrated Circuit project in Central Hubei

BEIJING: China has set up a USD 24 billion Integrated Circuits project in Central Hubei province aimed at boosting the country's production of memory products.

The construction for the Integrated Circuits ( IC) project started on Monday in the East Lake High-tech Zone in Wuhan City, capital of Hubei, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

The project focuses on research and development of memory products. Monthly production capacity is expected to reach 300,000 chips in 2020 and one million in 2030.

Hubei has set up a special investment fund of 50 billion yuan (USD 7.7 billion) to support the IC industry. An investment of USD 24 billion was expected in the next five years, the report said.

The IC industry is a strategic emerging sector for China, with huge investment to be poured into it.

In 2014, China's cabinet issued a guideline on the development of the industry to stimulate IC companies and accelerate the pace in order to catch up with international leaders in the industry.

China, which relies heavily on imports of IC, has established a national Integrated Circuit investment fund of 138 billion yuan (USD 21.3 billion).

In 2014, the country's IC imports hit USD 218 billion, of which memory products accounted for about 25 per cent.

With this project, China's capacity in memory products will keep up with or surpass that of countries like the Republic of Korea in five to 15 years, said Zou Xuecheng, a professor of semiconductor engineering at Wuhan's Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

An IC also referred to as a chip or a microchip is a set of electronic circuits on one small plate of semiconductor material, normally silicon.

They are used in virtually all electronic equipment today and have revolutionised the world of electronics.