[CC may contain inaccuracies] I just want to start asking you about
this whole tech sector and the semiconductor side of things, because we
continue to see, of course, the geopolitical tensions building up
between the U.S. and China.
Is this having any impact on your economy, on how you operate in this
sector? All right.
Well, thank you, Sherry. Well, we know as we navigate through
this tech war, I mean, it's a global trade war, but it's really to me, the
challenges are facing the tech industry. But that we've seen and we're talking to
companies and companies are telling us that they are realigning and redesigning
the supply chain. And so as a result, we've seen more
investments coming to the region. Malaysia, of course, has been the
beneficiary of that. And Malaysia has been an industry in
this industry for more than 50 years. Have we built a strong ecosystem around
the semiconductor industry and has been a major part of our exports?
So to me, when we see what's happening today, many
companies in Malaysia, both Malaysian companies and international companies in
Malaysia, are seeing better results as a result.
Could that change depending on how the US elections unfold in November?
Well, honestly, when I see what has happened in the last five years, even
during the change from Trump to Biden, we don't see major
changes in this sector. Families are families and companies and
also for the international companies based in Malaysia.
And I don't foresee that continues to change when there is a new if there is a
new policy change in the new US
administration. The US has been stepping up curbs when
it comes to Chinese chipmakers. Has that affected Malaysia and how do
you try and navigate this? Yes, well, to date it has not affected.
What's key is we continue to engage both China and us.
Of course, Malaysia is a very open economy and we are parties to many
multilateral and bilateral efforts with many nations around the world.
So the key is to continue to engage. To date, we have not seen any tariff
being imposed on companies based in Malaysia, in the chip or in the
semiconductor sector. Perhaps one of the challenges is
building up a skilled workforce. What are the strategies to counter some
of the concerns that Malaysia doesn't have that adequate workforce to be able
to realise these investment ambitions?
I think you're right. One of the major challenge in for the
industry and this is not just for Malaysia, but also globally, is talent.
The talent pool required for the growing semiconductor industry has been quite
demanding. So for Malaysia, we have been working
very closely with industry. We have programs such as Academy in
industry, so basically work based learning program where we work closely
with academia and industry. Do we have a skill set of being upgraded
or we have reskilling as well? So we basically the course where
employees will get paid. And after that will get up and running
jobs with the companies. But what's important is with killing
people according to the needs of the industry.
Minister, of course, you are in Hong Kong right now for major events,
including Invest Malaysia, including Belt and Road initiatives as well.
Tell us a little bit about what sort of companies globally you're targeting for
them to come over to Malaysia and how far along are the conversations in these
negotiations to bring them to your country and anything exciting that you
could disclose today? Well, I've been meeting investors, both
capital market investors, as well as FDI investors.
We are talking about various sectors that they are interested in.
And we, of course, have been focusing on five key sectors that we want companies
to come to Malaysia and invest in Malaysia, especially in the digital
green sector. We are looking at five key sectors.
As I mentioned, we are looking at the energy sector, the digital economy
sector, chemical, petrochemical healthcare especially, or medical
devices and pharmaceutical as well as the aerospace industry.
So these are the five sectors that we've been talking to the investors in in in
Hong Kong business income. So that's some diversification there, I
think. How important is it, do you think, for
Malaysia to be able to not have all its eggs in the basket given the questions
over overinvestment and, you know, the correlated returns?
Is that a concern, do you think? Well, that's why if you look at where we
are today, you know, we do it not just focusing on any particularly
semiconductor. I mentioned that we also in various
other spaces that we have focused focusing on today, aerospace and and
chemical petrochemical. We pulled out of the five that I
mentioned earlier. We we have a very diversified economy.
We have a commodity based economy as well.
Still strong. I mean, 20% of our exports is
commodities and the other 80% is in the manufacturing and services sector.