1 | P a g e A s o f 1 6 J u l y 2 0 1 2

Penang Investment

Updates

2nd Quarter 2012 (March –

June)

Investment Promotion and Mission

March 1 – 3, 2012 – The Penang Investment

Promotion Mission to Japan was led by

Chief Minister, the Rt. Hon. Lim Guan Eng.

The objectives of the mission were to enhance

visibility and further promote Penang as the

location of choice for Japanese investors; and

strengthen ties with Japanese companies in

Japan to attract new investments and

reinvestments in Penang. The mission

targeted Japanese companies that have

operations in Penang and are planning for

expansion.

PICS: Australia Malaysia Business Council -

Seminar

PIC: Investment Promotion Mission to Japan

March 23 – 25, 2012 – Chief Minister, the Rt.

Hon. Lim Guan Eng led an investment

promotion mission to Melbourne, Victoria,

Australia. The objectives of the mission were

to enhance visibility and further promote

Penang as a location of choice for Australian

investors in BPOs and services sector; and to

attract talents, including Malaysian students

and diaspora to Penang. Seminars, business

meetings and dialogue sessions were held

with the Australian Malaysian Business

Council, Asia Link (an initiative of the Myers

Foundation) and the Malaysian Australia

Student Council of Melbourne, Victoria. The

Penang CAT Centre took the opportunity to

promote Penang as a great place to live, work

and play.

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Choice of Investor

March 5, 2012 –

Phison of Taiwan

announced the

establishment of its

engineering

development and

design centre in

Penang. The

centre will be

involved in the

development and

design of chip,

system design and

marketing. With an initial investment of USD1

– 3 million, the centre in Penang involves a

tripartite partnership comprising Phison

conducting the design, Silterra engaging in

wafer fabrication and Index Diversified

responsible for sales, marketing and

distribution. Penang is Phison’s first offshore

site outside Taiwan. Phison is a NAND flash

application solution provider that also designs

controller IC and system integration.

May 9, 2012 – Bose Corp signed the sales

and purchase agreement with Penang

Development Corporation (PDC) for a 23-acre

site at Batu Kawan Industrial Park as its 6th

wholly-owned manufacturing plant and the first

combined manufacturing and development

facility in Asia Pacific. The Penang facility is

expected to join the ranks of Bose’s other

production facilities in the US, Canada, Mexico

and Ireland and will produce consumer,

automotive and professional audio products for

Bose’s customers in Australia, China, India,

Japan, the UAE and other ASEAN countries.

Bose is a world renowned high-end and high-

performance audio company.

K.S. Pua, Chairman and CEO of Phison

Electronics Corp, was born and raised in the

village of Sekinchan, Selangor, Malaysia. He

received his Degree in Electronic & Control

Engineering in 1997 from National Chiao Tung

University. During his third year in the

university, he began research in flash memory

technology in his professor's company. At the

age of 26, he founded Phison Electronics with

four partners. Phison produced the first USB

flash drive with system-on-chip (SOC)

technology in the world in 2001. Despite living

in Taiwan for the past 16 years, Pua still

considers Malaysia as his home. Phison

decided on investing in Penang because of the

availability of world class infrastructure as well

as the excellent human resource. Phison has

also chosen Penang to be its first location

outside Taiwan.

PIC: Exchange of Agreement at the Signing

Ceremony

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MAY 15, 2012 – PDC, Malaysian Automotive

Lighting (MAL) and Daya CMT signed a

tripartite agreement, with PDC offering 14

acres of land in Batu Kawan Industrial Park

(BKIP) for the establishment of a 26,632 sq. m.

manufacturing plant for MAL’s expansion

project worth RM117 million. In the next 4

years, MAL is expected to create additional

240 jobs, to add on to its existing workforce of

960 people. Construction of MAL’s new facility

at BKIP commenced in March this year, by

Daya CMT Sdn. Bhd, a turnkey contractor

appointed by PDC. Construction of the facility

is expected to be completed by January 2013,

wherein PDC will lease the land and building

to MAL for a period of 20 years with an option

to extend for another 10 years. MAL will be

using the new facility to produce car lamps,

rear lamps, fog lamps and other automotive

accessories for the global market.

The New Honeywell UOP plant in Prai (Source: The

Star)

Honeywell’s UOP Separex™ membrane systems

PIC: Signing Ceremony Between PDC,

Malaysian Automotive Lighting (MAL), PDCC &

Daya CMT (Source: PDC)

May 24, 2012 – UOP

LLC, a Honeywell

company announced the

opening of its gas processing membrane

manufacturing centre in Seberang Perai,

Penang. This centre will produce natural gas

membrane elements, under the Separex

brand, to support the growing natural gas

market. Currently, there are two production

lines at the Penang facility and there is room

for another production line. The Penang

facility will enable the expansion of UOP’s

membrane manufacturing capacities as well as

to increase UOP’s presence in the region.

Chief Minister, the Rt. Hon. Lim Guan Eng

officiated the opening of the facility. UOP is

headquartered in Illinois, US and is a leading

international supplier and licensor of process

technology, catalysts, absorbents, process

plants, and consulting services to the

petroleum refining, petrochemical and gas

processing industries.

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Business Process Outsourcing

(BPO)

Penang has been identified as a prime location

with significant outsourcing potential due to the

presence of many multinational companies.

The availability of trained, skilled and

multilingual workforce in Penang’s proximity to

the major client bases are the main reasons

for KPMG to rank the state as one of 31

outsourcing hubs of the future. Moreover,

Penang is providing a growing number of BPO

companies because of the opportunities in

creating higher paid jobs. BPO or shared

services & outsourcing companies that are

servicing the export market will be entitled for

the MSC- Malaysia status.

March 4 – 6, 2012 – BPO Seminar in Hong

Kong. In Hong Kong, investPenang organised

a seminar, “Exploring New Opportunities in

SSO/BPO in Penang”. Other than marketing

Penang as the destination of choice for BPO

and KPO, the seminar was also a means to

renew and strengthen ties with business and

financial leaders in Hong Kong.

With effect from January 1, 2012, companies

applying for the MSC-Malaysia status have a

wider choice of locations because of the

revision of requirements by the Multimedia

Development Corporation (MDec). MDec now

allows MSC-Malaysia companies to have the

option to locate in non-MSC designated

commercial buildings within an approved MSC

boundary, e.g. Penang MSC Cybercity.

Companies that take this option will be

required to forgo the Bill of Guarantee 1 (BOG

1), i.e. the provision of world-class physical

and information infrastructure. Taking into

consideration of the importance of BPO,

investPenang is aggressively promoting BPO’s

via the following seminars.

May 30 – 31 – BPO Seminar in Singapore,

“Exploring New Opportunities in SSO/BPO

in Penang.” The Penang Investment and

Tourism Office (PITO), a branch of

investPenang organised the seminar which

attracted targeted Singaporean businessmen

who are currently or planning to be engaged in

the shared services and outsourcing (SSO)

activities. The seminar also aimed at

establishing contacts with international SSO

companies in Singapore as well as to

understand their needs and requirements.

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Conferencing and Exhibition

April 25, 2012 – MSC Malaysia properties:

Opportunities & Benefits to Stakeholders

was held at Vistana Hotel and attracted 60

participants from 33 properties developers and

utilities companies. The event covered the

opportunities in Penang Cybercity, the demand

and supply on office space particularly from

BPO companies, the development of

Multimedia Supercorridor, MSC Malaysia-

status infrastructure and revised MDEC

policies on MSC Malaysia Requirement

Location and performance standards

governing the award of MSC Malaysia status

to stakeholders.

(For more information):

http://www.investpenang.gov.my/portal/pdf/Revised_

MSC_Malaysia_Location_Requirement.pdf

PICS: Guests at the MSC Malaysia Properties event

May 22, 2012 – The Penang SME Forum

2012 held at Traders Hotel attracted 130

participants from 65 different companies.

Various topics of interest were deliberated,

which include industry trends and investment

updates; Malaysia’s involvement in Free Trade

Agreements; investment opportunities in the

manufacturing & service sectors in Malaysia;

SME development programmes in the country;

opportunities in Halal sectors; building global

supply chain; human resource development

and border carbon adjustment.

(For more information):

http://smartpenang.my/index.php?option=com_conten

t&view=article&id=136:2012-penang-sme-

forum&catid=42:past-event&Itemid=134

PICS: The Penang SME Forum 2012 at Traders Hotel

(left)

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June 6, 2012 – Dialogue with companies in

Penang Science Park. In the quest to

provide a favourable and business friendly

environment to the companies that have

purchased land at Penang Science Park,

investPenang organised a briefing cum

dialogue session with the companies.

Representatives from the Penang

Development Corporation, Department of

Environment, Majlis Perbandaran Seberang

Perai and the Royal Malaysian Police were

invited to brief and facilitate the companies.

Issues on infrastructure planning,

environmental regulations and guidelines,

approval processes, park management and

security were discussed at the dialogue.

(For more information):

http://www.pdc.gov.my/index.php/2012-03-31-06-14-

13/styles/style3/84-property/135-penang-science-park

PICS: New Zealand Business Delegation networking

Session

PICS: Dialogue with companies in Penang Science

Park

Foreign Delegation & Business

Matching

March 28 – 30, 2012 – investPenang played

host to the New Zealand Business

Delegation, their Malaysia-Brunei Trade

Mission. The 13-member business delegation

was in Penang to look for opportunities to

network, seek contacts and learn about the

Penang market, including exploring

partnership opportunities with Penang

businesses. A business matching session was

organised for the delegation with relevant

Penang businessmen from the food;

agroventures; precision engineering; tourism

and art, culture and heritage sectors. This

collaboration was supported by the Asean

New Zealand Combined Business Council

(ANZCBC) and the New Zealand High

Commission in Kuala Lumpur.

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June 29, 2012 – The

delegation from Board of

Investment, Thailand visited

Penang and investPenang

took the opportunity to host a

Penang - Thailand Investment

Seminar with the participation

of local businessmen who are looking for

business opportunities in Thailand.

Networking

June 29, 2012 – Once again investPenang

and PDC joined hands in organising the

Annual Local Fruits Party. The fruit party,

which was partially sponsored by State

Executive Counselor’s Office for International

Trade and Industry Development, attracted

180 guests from various sectors in Penang as

well as guests from overseas.

For more information or enquiries, please

contact:

Invest-in-Penang Berhad

1 Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah

PSDC Building, Bayan Lepas

11900 Penang, Malaysia

The delegation also had the opportunity to visit

a local factory which has operations in

Thailand.

PICS: Annual Local Fruits Party

~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you ~~~~~~~~~~

Tel: (604) 6468833

Email: enquiry@investpenang.gov.my

Fax: (604) 6468811

Website: www.investpenang.gov.my