With the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China, especially regarding the semiconductor chip development sector, Malaysia is now seen as one of the most important countries when it comes to the development and packaging of these chips.
Today, Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar has announced the National Semiconductor Strategy, where the government will invest as much as $5.3 billion (~RM25 billion) to train a total of 60 thousand semiconductor engineers within a period of five to ten years to increase the number of experts and at the same time increase the number of companies local skilled in this industry.
According to a Nikkei Asia report, this investment will be channeled by sovereign wealth fund companies such as Khazanah Nasional and so on, where a large amount of this fund will be provided to provide training in semiconductor chip design, assembly, packaging and testing technology that will further increase Malaysia's value in this sector. on the international stage.
This strategic plan is not surprising, because Malaysia is already known as a destination for global companies such as Intel, Micron, Infineon and so on as a location for the development and testing of semiconductor chips.
Intel and Infineon have already confirmed investments of $7 billion and $5 billion to expand their wings in Malaysia, while Micron is opening its chip assembly and testing center in Batu Kawan by the end of 2023.
Armed with knowledge and experience in this industry, it is no surprise that the government wants to develop a more advanced and sustainable semiconductor industry. The government's idea here seems to be to attract investment from companies that develop semiconductor chips and foreign investment so that the people can take advantage of the technology and investment brought into Malaysia, while making this country a world-class semiconductor chip development hub.