LAUNCHING OF COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT ON POWER MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

SPEECH

YB DATO’ MUKHRIZ MAHATHIR

DEPUTY MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY

AT

LAUNCHING OF COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT ON POWER MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

20 FEBRUARY 2012 (MONDAY)

BALLROOM C, KUALA LUMPUR HILTON

Assalamualaikum W.B.T and Salam 1Malaysia.

Yang Berbahagia Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdullah,

President and Chief Executive Officer of MIMOS;

Yang Berbahagia Dr. Kamarulzaman Mohamed Zin,

Chief Executive Officer of Silterra Malaysia SdnBhd;

Members of the Media;

Honourable Guests.

1. First of all I would like to thank the organizers for their kind invitation for me to witness this new beginning between two Malaysian-owned semiconductor companies engaged in the area of semiconductor process development and wafer fabrication.

2. To my mind this is a smart consolidation if not collaboration between these two local businesses which complement the Government’s desire for higher value and knowledge-intensive investments to boosts our nation’s competitiveness.

3. I am made to understand that this collaboration involves Power Management Integrated Circuit (PowerMOS) technology transfer. These Integrated Circuits are used mainly in power management and energy efficiency applications. This derived application functions to regulate the delivery of energy to components of electronic devices or equipment. This will then improve the power efficiency of electrical systems. Therefore, this outcome is also in line with the Government’s policy to reduce energy wastage.

4. I am also told that globally the Total Available Market (TAM) for Power MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor) is estimated at USD5 billion with a compound annual growth rate of 7%. The TAM for China alone is expected to grow from USD2.5 billion to USD3.5 billion between 2012 and 2015. It is envisaged that this collaboration will create the right kind of synergy to capture a slice of this lucrative China market.

Honourable Guests,

5. As a result of this technology transfer whereupon Silterra being the technology provider and MIMOS having state-of-the-art wafer fab facility would jointly be able to monetize current equipment capacity in MIMOS’ fabrication facility located in Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) while still providing R&D support for our countries needs.

6. For your information, MIMOS Wafer Fab currently serves local and international foundry customers from Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. Thus it is encouraging to see two local companies work together to reduce our nation’s production dependency on foreign countries or companies.

7. To my mind, we must leverage off Silterra’s process technology and know-how for the benefit of their stakeholders as well as our nation. This exercise could help generate additional economic activities that contribute to our country’s GNI while optimizing available assets. MIMOS would also be able to offer its expertise to a wider range of customers be it local or foreign with this newly acquired technology. This is a win-win strategy.

Honourable Guests,

8. I am further made to understand that this year 2012, Silterra has locked in several new customers for the manufacturing facility at MIMOS to the tune of 1,000 to 2,000 wafers per month at the very least. A large portion of these wafers will be marked for the export market.

9. Also, human capital development is another facet of this collaboration which positively contributes to our talent pool as we ready ourselves for the push towards intensive wafer fabrication and integrated circuit design activities in tandem with our Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). It brings us closer to our goal of creating high-income jobs. For your information, under the Entry Point Projects (EPPs), our target is to develop as many as 2000 jobs through integrated circuit design firms.

10. Finally, it is hoped that spin-off business opportunities will be created through this Silterra-MIMOS collaboration.

11. Rest-assured we fully support such high-technology transfers. In fact, I would urge other companies to do the same and get in touch with MITI. We will do all we can to help you.

Distinguished guests,

12. Allow me to end my short speech with a quote from an icon; Steve Jobs- “When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

13. And with that, I would like to once again thank the organizers for their kind invitation. I wish you all the best in this collaboration.

14. Thank you.