KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia appears to be taking pole position in securing investments in Asean’s chip race due to its established supply chain, talent pool, abundant land and energy, as well as affordable business costs, according to Maybank Investment Bank (IB) Bhd.
It noted that approved investment commitments into Malaysia’s electrical and electronics cluster nearly tripled in 2023 from the previous year.
“The momentum continued in the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24), with investments soaring nearly 20-fold year-on-year to US$7.3bil,” it said in a research note yesterday.
According to the investment bank, both Malaysia and Vietnam have seen notable increases in their semiconductor export shares between 2015 and 2022, demonstrating the countries’ success in attracting chip-making investments.
Maybank IB highlighted that Asean is the world’s largest semiconductor exporter, accounting for 23% of global chip exports in 2022, with Singapore (10.8%) and Malaysia (7%) being the leaders in the region.
Malaysia’s edge is in downstream assembly, testing and packaging (ATP), accounting for 7% of global ATP capacity – the largest in Asean.
Maybank IB pointed out that several trade-sensitive Asean economies, including Malaysia, are benefiting from an upturn in the global semiconductor and broader electronic cycle this year. — Bernama
