Electronics Weekly
Of the ten accession countries joining the EU last Saturday, the most significant in electronics terms are Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
They are also the countries with the highest ambitions for the sector.
The semiconductor markets of these four countries top the list of the accession ten, according to analysts Future Horizons, with the Czech Republic market for semiconductors worth $320m last year, the Hungarian market worth $285m, the Polish market worth $220m and the Slovakian market with $90m.
According to an EU research document all of the ten countries have plans to expand their electronic sectors.
The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia have plans to expand their electronic sectors by 30 per cent by 2011, while Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta are looking at a 20 per cent expansion during the current decade, said the report.
In terms of the telecommunications and IT industries, the ambitions are much more modest with the ten countries targeting a 10 per cent expansion during the current decade.
When it comes to knowledge intensive service industries, both Slovakia and Slovenia are planning 50 per cent expansions of the sector in the decade, with Cyprus and Malta targeting a 30 per cent expansion and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland only looking to a 20 per cent increase.
