Vic & NSW govts scramble to attract Intel chip-plant

[Ramin Marzbani]

Isnt it better to have unrestricted rights to just buy this stuff
from wherever it is made (which in and of itself does not matter
given that this stuff is not really heavy and we have a few airports
in this country where it can be shipped into)?

The converse argument goes something like this: the Italians are 
really looking forward to growing their own Merinos so they dont have
to import wool from Australia (in order to process it and make clothing).
Now if anyone thinks the Italian government will spend $2 billion setting
up some Merinos sheep farms, call someone at DIST or better still, DoCA.

After listening to this morning's Sunday Program (Channel 9), it was hard
not to notice the difference between Chambers' interview and Barrett's
interview.  If Intel wants to go to Malaysia or Bangladesh (or maybe
even build more plants in the US) that is fine.  I would rather Malaysian
taxpayers help make Intel chips cheaper for us than the other way around.

The entire argument is based around the creation of associated industries
(like chemicals, gas, water treatment, construction, canteen services etc),
and at $100,000+ per job created I think we could have our available
worksforce do better.

The secondary argument about Venture Capital is absolutely ridiculous, as
Mr Moore from DIST noted, he was surprised to hear of Intel's VC fund, pity
that the report DIST (and AIIA) payed a bucket for the Buckeridge et al 
did'nt mention this stuff more clearly. Although Buckeridge et al managed to
get their hands on a bucket of government VC money as well (surprise, surprise). 
Barrett also said that people always
go to them [Intel] for VC money and that they don't need to advertise much;
well we don't need to subsidise a chip plant in order to have someone fax
all the VCs around the place with good propositions, now do we?

Fact is that it doesnt much matter where these plants are built - there
is very little spillover and nothing which we could not emulate at a much
lower cost (eg doing some custom wafers for University students - well, we
could just email/ftp the design to any number of plants around the world
and get the job done at commercial rates from the "bucket of $2 billion we
did'nt spend", etc etc.).

Mind you, you must feel for the PM and the Ministers out there, getting all
confused with the excellent cross between lobbyists and government 
consultants which is sort of unique to Australia.  They must feel pretty
down at time as I am sure even they can see through many of the arguments,
unfortunately, who can they turn to? [this is a question to the List]

Gordon Finlayson wrote:
> 
> At the press conference this afternoon in Sydney, Intel's CEO-in-waiting,
> Craig Barrett was rather luke-warm on the whole subject. He was asked at
> least two questions on the subject and refused to make any definitive
> comment on the issue.  We'll just have to wait and see.
> 
> Gordon
> 
> >On Fri, 3 Apr 1998, George Michaelson wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >>      http://www.abc.net.au/news/98/04/03/980403_25.htm
> >
> >> Gee. And I seem to remember a whole *heap* of economic rationalist dribble
> >> that this kind of thing wasn't needed, Irelands model of economic attraction
> >> to chip-plants had no long-term benefit, etc etc.
> >>
> >> What a shame. If the bloody system had not upped and died about 25 years ago
> >> Australia WOULD ALREADY HAVE a world-class VLSI-ULSI plant (or two)
> 
> ______________________________________
> Gordon Finlayson
> Assistant Editor CNET Australia
> gordonf@next.com.au
> http://www.cnet.bigpond.com
> ph. 61 2 9310 1433  fax 61 2 9310 1315
> 78 Renwick Street
> Redfern NSW 2012
> ______________________________________

-- 
Ramin Marzbani
www.consult  Asia/Pacific Internet & E-Commerce Research

We're everywhere! Australia, NZ, Singapore, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and soon .... China.