If Tsai Ing-wen’s plan works out, her country will start churning out up to 500 new electronics engineering experts annually from next year. On the orders of the Taiwanese president, five universities have set up “semiconductor academies”, each with a quota of producing 100 masters and PhDs a year.

For Taiwan’s economy, the prospective experts are a matter of survival.

Brisk demand for semiconductors, driven by working from home due to the pandemic as well as the proliferation of chips into everything from augmented reality headsets to electric cars, has powered an economic boom in Taiwan while most of the world sank into Covid-induced recession over the past two years. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest producer of made-to-order chips, is expected to produce another set of sparkling results on Thursday, reflecting that boom.