KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia unveiled its national semiconductor strategy (NSS) on Tuesday with an eye on boosting the sector in the country, attracting high-value investments and widening collaboration with international partners.
The key thrust of the strategy is to build up collaborations within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping and also multinational companies, democratizing the spread of technology.
"Ultimately, the NSS is a means for Malaysia to advance and democratize technology for the good of all humanity," he said in a special address at the Semicon Southeast Asia 2024 exposition, which aims to boost Malaysia's transformation into a semiconductor powerhouse and regional manufacturing hub.
The NSS strategy will be implemented in three phases: the first focusing on Malaysia leveraging its existing industry capacity to modernize outsourced assembly and testing with advanced packaging.
The second phase focuses on advancing capabilities in cutting-edge logic and memory chip design, fabrication, testing and looking to integrate the purchasers of chips, and the final phase is to support the development of Malaysian firms in semiconductor design, advanced packaging and manufacturing equipment.
"To stay flexible and agile, the NSS will be a living document, evolving as needed, but we remain steadfast in our aspiration to make Malaysia a major global player in accessible technology for all, powered by our semiconductor industry," he said.
Anwar also said the government will allocate 25 billion ringgit (5.3 billion U.S. dollars) to support the strategy and to train and upskill 60,000 high-skilled Malaysian engineers. ■
