On March 21, The Taiwan Printed Circuit Board Association (TPCA) held its 3rd General Meeting of the 11th Board and Benchmark Forum at South Garden in Taoyuan City. The General Meeting was chaired by TPCA Chairman Maurice Lee and the program of association affairs was conducted by the Secretariat led by Secretary-General David Lai. The program included the annual accounts and reports on TPCA activities. Thanks go out to all TPCA members’ representatives for their enthusiastic attendance.
　　During the General Meeting, Chairman Maurice Lee indicated that geopolitics, green sustainability and AI will be the defining industry trends in 2024. He emphasized that geopolitics is now beginning to drive the overseas expansion of supply chains, with Thailand set to become a new cluster in the global PCB industry. Last year, the slow pace of global economic recovery in 2023 saw the Taiwanese PCB industry output decline by 16.7% to NT$769.8 billion. The depletion of electronic product inventories, slowing inflation, and explosive growth in AI applications should see a return to growth in the industry. The electronics industry as a whole and the PCB industry in particular are therefore expected to embark on a new cycle of growth in 2024. The output of the Taiwanese PCB industry is set to grow by 6.3% and reach NT$818.2 billion in 2024.
　　The industry’s three key issues now are geopolitics, green sustainability, and AI. One of the guest speakers at the Forum was SciTech Power Research CEO Lingxiang Wu. Fresh from a study at the new joint fab that TSMC and JASM (Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing) are being built at Kumamoto in Japan, Wu shared his insights and discussed from a political perspective Japan’s policies and commitment to the revival of semiconductor manufacturing. For green sustainability, Taiwan Carbon Solutions Exchange (TCX) CEO Joshua Tien shared the concepts behind carbon credits, carbon management procedure, and how the TCX is helping Taiwanese manufacturers engage in self-management or achieve carbon neutrality through carbon trading in accordance with international carbon trading trends as expected by brand vendors. For AI, the last topic, Microsoft Taiwan CTO Kai-lung Hua shared how Microsoft’s Open AI has engaged in deep learning using LLMs (Large Language Models) in the year and a half since the launch of ChatGPT.
　　During the meeting, the three guest speakers and several hundred top industry executives explored the key industry issues of geopolitics, green sustainability, and AI. Chairman Lee also expressed his high hopes for the TPCA and Taiwanese PCB industry in 2024. He hoped that low-carbon transformation, advanced intelligent manufacturing as well as the golden triangle formed by Taiwan, China, and Thailand could all come together to forge the most resilient competitiveness in the world. The Annual General Meeting concluded on a high note amidst enthusiastic networking among the attendees.