Mr S Iswaran at the opening of Marvell'Building

SPEECH BY MR S. ISWARAN, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY, AT THE OPENING OF MARVELL BUILDING AT TAI SENG LINK ON 20 NOVEMBER 2008 AT 10AM 

Dr Sehat Sutardja

Chief Executive Officer, Marvell Technology Group,

Ms Dai Weili

Co-founder, Marvell Technology Group,

Dr Hoo Kuong

Vice President and General Manager, Marvell Asia Pte Ltd,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning.

I am pleased to be here this morning at the opening of the new Marvell building. Marvell is the world’s fifthlargest fabless semiconductor company, and a well- recognised industry leader in storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions.Marvell established its presence in Singapore about a decade ago as a sales & marketing, technical support and customer service centre. Today, Singapore is the regional head-quarters for Marvell with various functions, including integrated circuit (IC) design, test operations management and product engineering. Marvell’s growth in Singapore, culminating in the establishment of this new Regional Headquarters’ building, is a clear demonstration of the company’s commitment to Singapore and the critical role that Singapore plays in Marvell’s operations.

Digital devices are changing rapidly.The demand for power-intensive applications and a compact and light-weight gadget requires innovative solutions to manage and process the tasks. For such a knowledge-based industry, the most essential part of the business is the people.

Singapore – A Location for value-Added Human Capital

Talent, is hence a key differentiator for the semiconductor industry. Singapore’s highly educated and motivated workforce is a valuable asset for this type of knowledge-based business. We strive to provide high quality engineering talent to cater to the industry’s needs with programmes like the Specialist Manpower Program and the Joint Industry Development Program. This will help to ensure that we have competent and experienced manpower for the semiconductor industry.In particular, we have a good track record in analogue, mixed-signal and radio frequency (RF) IC design capabilities, which are not only critical, but in short supply globally.We shall continue to upgrade and differentiate our talent offerings to remain competitive and relevant.

The Competitive Singapore Semiconductor Ecosystem

In tandem with talent development, an integrated ecosystem is critical for a competitive semiconductor industry.In 2007, the output of the semiconductor sector in Singapore reached $36 billion, accounting for 52% of our total electronics industry output. Today, the sector has about 40 IC design companies, 14 silicon wafer fabrication facilities and 20 assembly and test plants. This is supported by a strong base of substrate, chemical and equipment suppliers. The presence of such a vertically integrated ecosystem provides a unique plug-and-play environment for IC design companies to work hand-in-hand with manufacturing partners to ensure success from bench to launch.

Working closely with local partners, Marvell has grown its Singapore R&D team over the years to include product and test engineering. These joint developments are mutually beneficial to both manufacturers and IC design companies and ensures that Singapore’s semiconductor industry remains vibrant and sustainable in the long run.

Singapore continues to be a strategic regional hub for knowledge-based industry

Outlook

The current global economic turmoil has undoubtedly affected our electronics industry. Several companies are fine-tuning their operations and revising growth targets.

Despite the current economic scenario, we continue to see electronics companies investing in capital, knowledge and innovation intensive activities in Singapore to position themselves for the future. These include Soitec’s newly launched 12-inch Silicon-On-Insulator wafer fabrication plant, innovation-intensive activities such as Lite-On’s new R&D centre and knowledge-intensive activities such as IC design and product engineering activities which Marvell will continue to grow in Singapore.

This is testament to these companies’ belief in Asia’s continued growth and Singapore’s competitive position.The outlook may be uncertain now but we are confident that Singapore will be ready and well-positioned to gear up for the future recovery of the global and Asian economies.

On this note, let me congratulate the management and staff of Marvell on the opening of this new building.I thank you for your trust and confidence in Singapore and wish you every success.

Thank you.