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Malaysia will offer incentives to draw global technology firms given its status as a regional digital hub

Malaysia plans to construct the biggest integrated circuit design park in Southeast Asia and can offer incentives including tax breaks, subsidies and visa waiver fees to draw global technology firms and investors, the federal government said on Monday.

Malaysia goals to rework Kuala Lumpur right into a regional digital hub and goals to be among the many top 20 countries in the worldwide start-up ecosystem index by 2030.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the proposed integrated circuit design park was a part of Malaysia’s efforts to maneuver beyond back-end chip assembly and testing to high-value front-end design work.

The country is a significant player within the semiconductor industry, accounting for about 13 percent of worldwide testing and packaging.

The Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. Malaysia’s goal is to rework Kuala Lumpur right into a regional digital hub. Photo: Bloomberg

The park, which can be backed by Malaysia’s central Selangor state, will house world-class anchor tenants and can partner with global firms akin to British chipmaker Arm Holdings, Anwar said, without providing further details.

Malaysia’s state wealth Khazanah Nasional may also launch a fund to take a position in modern, high-growth Malaysian businesses, with an initial allocation of 1 billion ringgit ($209 million), Anwar said on the KL20 summit, which goals to introduce recent policies to support Malaysian startup-UPS .

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the federal government would offer incentives including subsidized office space, furlough exemptions, relocation services and lower corporate tax rates to foreign enterprise capital firms, technology entrepreneurs and unicorns – start-ups achieving valuations of 1 billion dollars – wanting to take a position in Malaysia.

“We want to attract global unicorns to Malaysia to create high-skill, high-value jobs, as well as create a pipeline of future entrepreneurs and senior technology leaders,” Rafizi said.

Malaysia must “innovate” within the chips sector because the pie shrinks within the face of US-China rivalry

It also goals to create a more dynamic VC funding scene by doubling funding to $1.4 billion by 2030.

Anwar said twelve global VC firms will arrange offices in Malaysia.

The value of funds engaged in enterprise capital and personal equity funds in Malaysia rose to 17.6 billion ringgit last 12 months from 3.3 billion ringgit in 2006, in accordance with Securities Commission data. This was only a fraction of the nearly 1 trillion ringgit of combined assets within the country’s fund management industry.

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