SHANGHAI — “China is an important and growing manufacturing hub in the global electronics industry, and we are making a concerted effort to increase our presence and consortial activities here in order to serve the needs of our members who are already running significant operations in this region, and also to help those fast-growing Chinese companies to become international players by providing well-integrated global solutions.”

So said International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative chairman Nasser Grayeli, vice president, technology and manufacturing of Intel, as the trade group celebrated the grand opening of its Shanghai office.


More than 100 electronics leaders turned out yesterday for the event, led by Professor BI Keyun of the Chinese Electronic Packaging Society and Huang Jianzhong from the Ministry of Information Industry of China.

Following the opening ceremony, experts discussed key industry issues during a special forum. Topics included environmental legislation in China and its implications, miniaturization and its future direction, and the quality and reliability of the global supply chain. (The presentations are available at inemi.org/cms/newsroom/Presentations/China_Forum_Jan08.html.) These are also the major strategic areas for iNEMI collaboration in the coming years.

“We hope our members in China will get involved – network with other iNEMI members, share best practices, provide input to the roadmap and more,” said iNEMI CEO Jim McElroy.

Zhu Jian, an iNEMI chair and director of PBA manufacturing for Alcatel Shanghai Bell, added, “We plan to use this momentum to develop a strong base of activity in the region. We are already defining and organizing regional deployment projects in Asia and expect to launch several during the first quarter of 2008.”

Jian leads the steering committee coordinating iNEMI technical activities for the region. iNEMI’s first regional deployment project is currently being formed. It is an initiative to address solder paste deposition issues.