Five firms dip their toes in Silicon Valley
Published on: Monday, November 24, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO: The five Malaysian mid-tier companies on their "country-immersion visit" to Silicon Valley organised by the Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) got first-hand exposure to the business environment and the latest technologies in the region. "It was our first exposure to this very dynamic environment. It was like dipping our toes in the Silicon Valley waters," exclaimed Dixon Chew, the Group CEO of Penang-based Pensonic Holdings Bhd in an interview with Bernama shortly after the three-day visit to Silicon Valley on Thursday. Pensonic, which manufactures its own brand and also carries out ODM manufacturing of established brand electrical home appliances, is a U$100 million company listed on Bursa Malaysia, and exports some 30 per cent of its products while selling the remaining 70 per cent in the domestic market.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The Silicon Valley trip has been an eye-opener for me because we have had exposure to the ecosystem, and the intricacies of the region's business culture as well as the latest technology. "We are looking for suitable products which we can distribute in Asia, but are also looking at the licensing business and ODM manufacturing. "There is one U.S. company which showed interest in our offer," explained Chew who stressed that he would be coming again for a follow-up. "We met some interesting people, we did some good networking," he added.
ADVERTISEMENT
Richard Ngiam, the managing director of Rawang, Selangor-based Banseng Lee Industries Sdn Bhd which specialises in metal stamping, PCB assembly, plastics injection moulding and assembly of products, described the three days in Silicon Valley as a "learning experience." "We managed to see a lot of innovations among the products manufactured by Silicon Valley companies.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Our objective was to offer our services for contract manufacturing to companies here. "I met with some 10 companies, some of which were engaged in outsourcing, mainly, to China. We tried to highlight to them that Malaysian companies are equally good and cost-effective, and that we have a strong legal system to protect the IPR of U.S. companies, which may not be the case elsewhere. Also, China is no longer cheap. "I was deeply impressed by the sheer innovativeness that characterises the products and services here, and hope this rubs off on Malaysian companies," he said. "Despite economic uncertainties in other parts of the world, Silicon Valley is doing extremely well, unlike Europe with its negative outlook and China going through a corrective phase which will cool down the economy. "Don't expect China to post more than 5 per cent growth. Comparatively, the U.S. economy seems to be in good shape," Ngiam said.Another company in the delegation was Penang-based ViTrox Corp Sdn Bhd, which designs and manufactures automated vision inspection equipment and system-on-chip embedded electronics devices for semiconductor and electronics packaging industries, and which also has a strong R+D facility. The company's chief operating officer, Wei Yee Lim, told Bernama that innovativeness was a key element of Silicon Valley. "We Malaysians can learn something here. We are here to also enhance our technology portfolio," Lim said, adding that his company's vision inspection technology is used in various industries such as the automotive industry. The representatives of the Malaysian companies also talked about "building a bridge" between Malaysia and Silicon Valley, with some even mulling establishing a modest representation on the west coast to service the huge U.S. market. The first country immersion visit, led by Matrade's deputy CEO Datuk Dzulkifli Mahmud, was described by the delegates as a "good start". It offered valuable insights into how business operates in the U.S., providing them with not only insights into Silicon Valley's business culture but also enabling them to hold one-to-one business meetings and identify industry players, networking groups and hardware companies. Silicon Valley, home to some of the world's largest technology companies, leading universities and thousands of exciting new start-ups, generated some US$138 billion of GDP, which would make it the 56th largest economy in the world if it was a country. Start-ups received US$12.3 billion of funding from venture capitalists in 2013 and companies in Silicon Valley are sitting on US$428 billion in cash waiting for the right opportunities. Malaysia is keen to build up its muscle in the vibrant electrical and electronics (E&E) industry, which contributes some 24.5 per cent to Malaysia's manufacturing sector. E&E products have been the largest traded items for Malaysia for several decades since the industry took off in the 1960s, and have catapulted Malaysia to becoming a major link in the global E&E value chain. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
