New Article 18: There are bright spots but not enough power

At that time, the light stepped into 2011, and the country’s attention to integrated circuits reached an unprecedented level. On January 12th, just after the New Year’s Day, the State Council’s first office meeting was held. Premier Wen Jiabao presided over the research and deployment of policies and measures to further encourage the development of software and integrated circuit industries; On the first working day after the Spring Festival, the General Office of the State Council promulgated the "Policy to Further Encourage the Development of the Software Industry and the Integrated Circuit Industry" (New No. 18). With the start of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, the State Council issued two consecutively. The document that promotes the integrated circuit industry cannot say that the state does not pay enough attention to the integrated circuit industry.

However, after perusing the new No. 18 document, the old man still feels lack of strength after his joy. The new No. 18 article has bright spots, but promotion of the integrated circuit industry should be limited.

According to statistics of State Council counselor Hu Bengang, China's imported integrated circuits from 2007 to 2009 were 129.4 billion, 130.5 billion, and 116.4 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. In 2009, China imported 89.2 billion U.S. dollars of crude oil and imported iron ore was 50.1 billion U.S. dollars. It can be seen that the import of integrated circuits far exceeds crude oil, refined oil, and iron ore. Therefore, Hu Senshi once submitted to the State Council a "Four Suggestions on the Strategic Development of China's IC Industry", presumably this is also one of the reasons why the State Council has stepped up its support for integrated circuits at the beginning of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period.

Some people say that China's most imported goods are oil or iron ore. It is not, but it is an integrated circuit. Some people say that the U.S. exports most weapons or food, but in fact it does not mean that it is an integrated circuit; why China has to nurture integrated circuits is clear at a glance.

Hu’s opinions are correct, but for China’s IT industry, ICs are only the largest imported goods on the mainland. If China does not have its own strong integrated circuit industry, Chinese manufacturing will never be able to sublimate to China’s creation, and China will never be able to Changing the fate of global processing plants is the fundamental reason why the state should give more preferential treatment and supportive policies to the semiconductor industry than other industries.

Aside from the backwardness of semiconductor equipment, in China's semiconductor industry chain, wafer fabrication, packaging and testing, and IC design, IC design is ahead of wafer fabrication and packaging testing. IC design is the entire semiconductor industry. Core, the beginning of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan in the past 20 years is also starting from IC design. With the advancement of IC design, it will promote the development of wafer manufacturing and packaging and testing industry. However, from the perspective of taxation of No. 18, the biggest beneficiary company is Wafer manufacturing, that is, SMIC, China Micro, China Resources, etc. If Taiwan releases advanced processing fabs to the mainland, it is believed that TSMC and UMC will become the biggest beneficiaries, because no matter the scale or strength, the mainland includes SMIC. The fabs still do not have the ability to compete with each other. For the most important IC design companies, the construction of the new No. 18 document is only limited to the two-year exemption and three-half-reduction policy on income tax, and the support is obviously insufficient.

In fact, it is clear to a friend who is familiar with IC design companies in mainland China that although there are more than 500 IC design companies in mainland China, there are not many companies that have real strength and set up operations in mainland China. This means that although the company is registered on the mainland, even all employees Also working in the mainland, in fact, many companies operating entities are located overseas, that is, two exemptions and three half of the preferential policies can not enjoy, or that these policies are far from the temptation to set up operating entities in overseas, but for the image National Technology, Shanghai Spreadtrum, these companies operating in mainland China, many companies have already passed the exemption period of two exemptions and three half, or the expiry of the expiry date, for mainland IC design companies that are still growing, two exemptions and three half reductions. Obviously not enough, we should reduce the reduction by half. Otherwise, in order to enjoy the benefits of exemption, enterprises may have to continuously set up branches in various places to legally avoid taxation. From this point of view, the comparison between the new 18th and the old 18th, The change is not great. With the understanding of the semiconductor industry among the oldest, the new 18th-coupee tax incentives for IC design companies have not even reached the Taiwanese, Japan and South Korea and even Singapore's support for the industry.

Putting aside direct tax incentives, the biggest highlight of the new No. 18 document is to “actively support qualified software companies and integrated circuit companies to raise funds through various means such as issuing stocks and bonds, and to expand direct financing channels.” The idea has been advocating that the country can lean toward the semiconductor industry in terms of IPO policy and allow companies eligible for IPOs to issue shares on the mainland. However, in the new No. 18 document, “this policy is ultimately regulated by the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, and the industry. The Department of Information, the Ministry of Commerce, and the General Administration of Customs and other departments are responsible for interpreting.” There is no China Securities Regulatory Commission as the implementation department, and the old man wonders how big this support is, or whether it can actually be implemented.

Just in 2011, the mainland has already acquired Xi'an and the background core capital by foreign capital. If the mainland is not inclined to IPO policy, and with foreign investment in mainland semiconductors, LaoYi believes that more IC design companies will be acquired by foreign capital. Wang Qinsheng, chairman of the IC Design branch of the China Semiconductor Association, believes that the mainland IC design company will eventually be integrated into 50 companies. If the policy is not inclined, eventually the mainland IC design company may only have 50 companies, but not because of internal Integration, but because of foreign mergers and acquisitions, is really such a catastrophic disaster for the mainland semiconductor industry, the mainland's huge capital investment in the semiconductor industry over the years has also become a foreign investment, attracting more IC design companies to the mainland IPO, the development of mainland stock markets into fertile soil for the semiconductor industry is the only way to change this trend.

Shanghai Pupu US$85 million, Zyn’s US$40 million, and Beijing Core Stock’s US$55 million, which together add up to US$180 million. The total revenue of the three companies in 2010 was no more than US$50 million, and the total number of employees was no more than 250. The $175 million acquisition of NEC's $2 billion PC business is a fool. If you don't change China, you must catch up with Europe and America and estimate that God must cry. Although Circular 18 encourages mergers and acquisitions of industries, different valuations of domestic and foreign funds for IC design will lead to domestic capital mergers and acquisitions doomed to be unable to compete with foreign capital. Such a support policy will also be destined to become a piece of paper. Many people envy the financing of the National Technology and Enterprise Development Board to reach 2.3 billion. The renminbi is actually worth more than 300 million U.S. dollars. If National Technology also spent 180 million U.S. dollars to acquire the above-mentioned three companies, we believe that the stock price will be plunged. The difference between domestic and foreign mergers and acquisitions is here, which means that mergers and acquisitions are doomed. It will not become the mainstream integration method for mainland semiconductors in the future.

Although it feels that the new 18th article is not strong enough, Daddy still feels gratified. After all, it is better than none, but also because the rise of the Chinese semiconductor industry in the era of market economy should still be promoted by the market. Some people have defined the past ten years as the gold of Chinese semiconductors. In fact, it's actually not true. Because of the global release, Continental Semiconductor is very weak, but if it is said that the next decade will be the golden decade of China's semiconductor industry, the old man is convinced that because the accumulation of the past two decades has left Continental Semiconductor on the verge of an explosion.