E & E industry still key driver of Malaysia’s industrial development

SILTERRA ADVANCED PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES AND EXPAND WAFER FABRICATION CAPACITY

KUALA LUMPUR: The electrical and electronics (E & E) industry continues to be a key driver of Malaysia’s industrial development and contributes significantly to its gross domestic product (GDP) growth, export earnings, investment and employment.

The Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), in its National Transformation Programme Annual Report 2015, said 93 E & E projects with investments worth RM8.9bil were approved last year.

Of this, 26 projects were new projects with investments of RM2.1bil while 67 were expansion/diversification projects with investments amounting to RM6.8bil.

Pemandu said major E & E export destinations with significant increase (exceeding RM1bil) for 2015 included Singapore, the United States, Thailand, South Korea, Germany, Japan and India, whereby total exports for E & E products was RM277.92bil.

It said the E & E industry as a whole would benefit from the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), particularly small-and-medium enterprises, as it would provide the opportunities to export to TPPA member countries, which collectively account for 40% of global GDP.

Meanwhile, the Business Services National Key Economic Area (NKEA), a critical component of the country’s transformation journey, generated RM46.2bil in gross national income last year, representing a 9.7% growth over 2014. (Editor’s note: This NKEA’s entry point projects include growing the aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul services; positioning the country as a world-class data centre hub; and growing large pure-play engineering services.)  

Moving into 2016, this NKEA would move from under the purview of the Human Resources Ministry to the International Trade and Industry Ministry, leveraging on existing governance platforms such as the Malaysia Services Development Council and the newly-revived Malaysian Aerospace Council.

“The coming year will also see the continued implementation of the 283.28ha state-of-the-art Sedenak Iskandar Data Hub, as well as, an increased focused on developing Sarawak as a data centre location given its large available land mass, abundant hydroelectric supply and low risk of natural disasters,” it added. - Bernama