Huge dose of positive news

(From second left) Azman, Gladwell, Chow, Arthun and other special guests at the launch of the groundbreaking ceremony in Batu Kawan.

SOME 800 vacancies will be created with the setting up of a new manufacturing facility by British multinational medical equipment company, Smith+Nephew.

The facility at the Batu Kawan Industrial Park in Bandar Cassia on the Penang mainland will be the company’s first South-East Asia facility to support the company’s orthopaedic franchise.

Smith+Nephew Penang site leader Mark Arthun said the 23,225sq m (250,000sq ft) facility would primarily support the company’s orthopaedic franchise and fill the vacancies over the next five years.

“The job functions here include manufacturing, engineering and supply chain.

“Construction of the RM211mil (USD50mil) facility is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of next year, ” he said at the facility’s groundbreaking ceremony recently.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said Penang continued to welcome investments and that the medical technology and devices industry played an increasingly important role in the state.

“Penang has seen the increasing importance of this industry in the past 10 years.

“We welcome Smith+Nephew which is worth about USD38bil with an average annual growth of approximately 4%.

“In the first nine months of 2019, Penang recorded RM13.3bil of total approved manufacturing investment, the highest value recorded over the past decades, ” he said.

The ceremony was marked with the piling of the first pillar on the site.

Also present were Smith+Nephew global operation president Mark Gladwell, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud and InvestPenang chief executive officer Loo Lee Lian.