The chip giant's chairman Craig Barrett said the expansion project will create an additional 2,000 jobs at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park in the northern state of Kedah.
The new 18, 580 sq m facility is expected to be operational by 2007 and will include the creation of the Platform Compatibility and Ecosystem Validation Lab, which will focus on supporting digital home and digital office platforms and channel platform business.
Barrett said Intel has invested over US$3 billion in Malaysia since 1972, and underlines its continued commitment to the country with the fresh invesment.
'Over 33 years, Malaysia has become increasingly integral to Intel. Utilising the country's technically skilled workforce allows Intel to best serve our customers worldwide,' he said at a media briefing in the capital city in December.
Intel Malaysia is Intel's largest operational site outside the US, and currently employs 10,000 staff in Kulim, Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
Barrett said Asia was Intel's largest and fastest growing market. Besides Malaysia, he said Intel planned to invest more than US$2 billion over the next four years in China and India.
Penang chief minister Koh Tsu Koon later added that investment in Penang has been on upswing in 2005 after a decline from 2002 to 2004 period.
Host to various multinational hardware manufacturers, the island state recorded an estimated US$658 million worth of investments in 2005 despite pressure from lower cost centers such as China and Vietnam.
' Penang is now at an inflection point. There is a three to five years window of opportunity now that we must grab,' he said. Koh said Intel had taken in 1,200 new employees in 2005, one of their biggest recruitments ever, out of which 500 were engineers.
In Kulim, Intel set up a motherboard design and development center, which has grown tenfold from 20 engineers in 1999 to over 200 engineers.
The center is the largest offshore motherboard design and development facility outside Oregon, US. The Malaysian team develops motherboard products based on the Intel Architecture platform for the global market.
On the deployment of WiMax, Barrett said there were 30 global commercial trials from Intel in 2005 and at least another 100 planned for in 2006.
He said Intel has rolled out a commercial trial of the wireless broadband connectivity application in Seremban, south of Kuala Lumpur, in December, 2005, while trials are planned for Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Barrett said the WiMax trials are part of Intel's Digital ASEAN (d-ASEAN) vision of an integrated region of connected villages, provinces, cities and countries which will lead to a more digitally integrated Southeast Asia.
In addition, Intel has committed to helping Malaysia's information and communications technology (ICT) workforce grow through its 'Teach to the Future' program, which is a worldwide effort to help teachers integrate technology into the curriculum.
Since it started in 2000, the program has trained more than 28,000 teachers and trainee teachers in Malaysia.
Note:
Published in February 2006 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia
by Julian Matthewshttp://www.trinetizen.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=403 |
