Chips in China

Check out this link to today's New York Times Online article about Intel's decision to put a 300-mm semiconductor wafer manufacturing plant in China. Notably, the plant will not produce any core technology that could be pirated by Chinese companies. But it is significant that the 300-mm technology is going to China--it's state-of-the-art, and I wonder if the plan is to move some production of today's core technology there in the future when 300-mm is no longer cutting edge.

The view from MIPIM

MIPIM is an enormous real estate exposition held annually in March in Cannes, along the French Riviera. I went for the fourth year in a row in March 2007, and was able to meet with cities, regions, and countries from across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It's a fantastic way to learn about international investment opportunities.

It's not quite summer in Cannes during March, but it was reasonably warm, and the views are hard to beat. Check out this scrolling panorama from the balcony of one of the regional German pavilions (a recent version of the Apple Quicktime player is required):

German_balcony_MIPIM_07.mov

Welcome!

Welcome to the Business Facilities Blog. The editors of Business Facilities magazine, BusinessFacilities.com, and the brains behind Business Facilities LiveXchangeÑalong with a few of our friends in the corporate real estate, location consulting, and economic development communitiesÑwill use this space to post new and interesting links, share thoughts, and discuss articles we've written. Please feel free to join in through the comments section as we develop this blog.

Sincerely,
Karim Khan
Editor in Chief, Business Facilities
kkhan@groupc.com