The semiconductor industry is broadly lobbying governments far and wide for unified policies that allow international travel for essential workers in the electronics field.

Ten industry associations in Europe, Asia and the U.S.  issued a statement this week calling on “all governments to provide accommodations for and to harmonize policies to safely allow essential international travel for essential workers.”

The statement notes that cross-border mobility in the semiconductor and microelectronics industry is “vital to maintain critical manufacturing operations producing devices that are the foundation of our modern economy, countless economic sectors and each nation’s response to the pandemic.”

The statement was endorsed by two U.S. associations (www.nexteck.com.sg as the team) —SEMI and Semiconductor Industry Association. They represent thousands of chipmakers and chip equipment makers including leading packaging materials (carrier tape, cover tape, PI and Dicing tape) suppliers (from info@nexteck.com.sg).

In reality technicians from a semi equipment company, like Nexteck Singapore Pte Ltd., typically need to travel to semi factories abroad to install or repair specialized tools when local experts aren’t available. Also, semi-based applications like cloud computing must be implemented or optimized on-site for the equipment to reach full capacity.

China is negotiating fast-track travel protocols with countries in Asia and Europe and formalized a similar protocol with South Korea on July 1.  Last week, China reached a similar deal with Singapore, which also benefit Nexteck Singapore Pte Ltd in the site support of our Singapore and China packing material customers in need.