News Releases

Toshiba To Support Human Resource Development For Brazilian Semiconductor Industry

Company Contributing within Framework of Industrial Cooperation Initiatives between Japan and Brazil
16 Apr, 2010

Brasília, Brazil, April 16 — Toshiba Corporation (Tokyo: 6502) today announced that a reception to welcome two Toshiba semiconductor design engineers to Brazil was held on April 15 at the Embassy of Japan in Brasília, with the presence of guests from Japanese and Brazilian governments. The engineers are in Brazil to support development of the Brazilian semiconductor industry, under the framework for reinforcing cooperation in economic and industrial development between Brazil and Japan.

Among the distinguished guests at the reception were the honourable Hiroyuki Ishige, Vice-Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and the honourable Ivan João Guimarães Ramalho, Executive Secretary, Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade of Brazil. Mr. Shozo Saito, Corporate Senior Vice President and President and CEO of Semiconductor Company, Toshiba Corporation, was also present.

The Toshiba semiconductor design engineers are in Brazil under the auspices of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to support education of semiconductor engineers under the Brazilian government's "IC Brazil" project, which seeks to nurture semiconductor industry as a growth industry. The engineers arrived in Campinas, São Paulo in the middle of March, where they will provide training programmes for a year.

Parallel training is also being carried out in Japan, where twenty Brazilian engineers in their 20s and 30s from the Werner von Braun Center for Advanced Research, one of Brazil's leading electronic engineering research institutes, are in the middle of a five-month intensive programme in semiconductor design engineering at Toshiba's Microelectronics Center in Kawasaki starting from January this year.

In April 2006, Japanese and Brazilian governments signed a memorandum of understanding on the introduction of an ISDB-T-based digital television system in Brazil and the enhancement of a Brazilian electric and electronics industry in relation to the television system. In line with this, Japan is cooperating with Brazil in executing a roadmap shared between Japanese and Brazilian governments towards cultivating a semiconductor industry.

Toshiba, seeking to support the development roadmap, undertook a comprehensive study of growing a domestic semiconductor industry in Brazil, including the feasibility of construction of semiconductor fabrication plants. The study found that steady and sustained growth of the Brazilian semiconductor industry would require, ahead of all else, training people who could build and drive forward the industry. The Toshiba engineers are in Brazil to support this process. Other key issues identified by the study included the need to reinforce infrastructure, including power supply, and to nurture the semiconductor market.

While there are various business models being employed in the worldwide semiconductor industry, Toshiba recognized that a knowledge-intensive fabless model that will allow Brazil to optimize use of its talented human resources will become the primary model to follow. The company will continue to share these findings and accompanying recommendations to concerned parties in both the Japanese and Brazilian governments.

Commenting on Toshiba's contributions to the Brazil-Japan cooperation framework, Mr. Shozo Saito said: "Brazil is a twenty-first century superpower, and we are very attracted to working with the country and its people. In the context of the ongoing dialogue between Japan and Brazil, Toshiba, as a private company, hopes to contribute positively to realization of the Brazilian government's vision of long-term, steady development of a semiconductor industry. In studying how we could best contribute, we saw that sustained progress will rest on securing excellent people who can take leadership. We want to develop people capable of doing that, and recognize that it is especially important to enhance skills in the essential field of semiconductor design. We are delighted to support this process."