KULIM: The value of electronic and electrical (E&E) exports from Malaysia should exceed RM300bil this year.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said that so far for the nine months of 2017, the total value of E&E exports was already about RM251bil.

“As the year end is approaching soon, we should see the figure going above the RM300bil mark,” he added.

Last year, the total E&E export from Malaysia was RM287.7bil, making the country the seventh largest exporter of E&E products in the world.

He said this at the opening of the new Osram LED plant in Kulim Hi-Tech Park.

“The E&E sector has shown an upward trend for the past three years, making it the only industry that recorded a trade surplus for three consecutive years,” he added.

Mustapa said Osram’s presence here had strengthened the value chain of other local players in the industry.

“Notably, the business opportunities the company has provided to local players amounts to RM500mil, involving 600 suppliers based in Malaysia such as Globetronics, Kinetics Systems Malaysia, Nagase, and Air Liquide Malaysia.

“For this expansion, local spending will increase to an additional RM900mil for the next 10 years.

“We encourage more local players to seize these opportunities to grow together with Osram, towards becoming global champions in their own right,” he said.

Mustapa added with Osram’s state-of-the art facility, Malaysia now has the world’s most advanced LED chip factory.

“This also means that Malaysia now has a complete LED ecosystem here. This further enhances the country’s capabilities to tap into the potentials of a rapidly expanding Led industry, towards becoming a Led manufacturing hub in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.

Mustapa said over the past 19 months, existing companies such as B. Braun, Osram, BASF, and Infineon, have made additional investments of RM3.7bil to expand in Malaysia.

“We have received feedback recently from German companies expressing their interest to make further investments in Malaysia,” he added. 

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