{"id":40909,"date":"2019-11-21T11:41:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T03:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/the-trade-war-may-help-penang-return-to-its-glory-days\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T17:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:13:15","slug":"the-trade-war-may-help-penang-return-to-its-glory-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/the-trade-war-may-help-penang-return-to-its-glory-days\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trade War May Help Penang Return to Its Glory Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” el_class=”sec-inner-banner” css=”.vc_custom_1703741584745{background-image: url(https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/contact-banner-bg.jpg?id=20253) !important;}” z_index=””][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” el_class=”inner-banner-row”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The Trade War May Help Penang Return to Its Glory Days<\/h1>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” el_class=”red-separator” color=”#ee4023″ transparency=”1″ thickness=”2″ up=”15″ down=”15″][vc_column_text css=”” el_class=”white-text”]<\/p>\n

21 November 2019<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css=”.vc_custom_1703764846254{background-color: #f3f5f8 !important;}” z_index=””][vc_column el_class=”fade-in animate”][vc_empty_space height=”120px” el_class=”height-x120″][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image=”29360″ img_size=”full” qode_css_animation=”” el_class=”single-featured-image”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”60px” el_class=”height-x60″][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” el_class=”content-row”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]The Malaysian state\u2019s electronics industry thrives as Chinese manufacturers seek neutral territory.
\n<\/strong>By Michelle Jamrisko and Anisah Shukry<\/p>\n

Penang\u2019s pastel-hued, colonial-era buildings speak to the Malaysian island\u2019s history as a key trading post for the East India Company, when spices filled its warehouses and the British and Dutch vied for dominance in the region.<\/p>\n

Today, it\u2019s the U.S. and China that are wrestling for economic supremacy\u2014and Penang\u2019s electronics industry that\u2019s reaping benefits. Malaysia has found its niche as a neutral player in the trade war, helped by the fact that about one-quarter of the population is ethnic Chinese and an even larger proportion is proficient in English. Penang logged a 136% increase in foreign direct investment in the first half of 2019, to 8.7 billion Malaysian ringgit ($2.1 billion).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trade war, I think it\u2019s a blessing,\u201d says Chuah Choon Bin, executive chairman of Pentamaster Corp. Bhd., which makes equipment for the manufacturing and semiconductor industries. The Penang-based company has added 10 customers this year\u2014a marked increase from the one to three it says it picks up in a regular year. Seven of its new clients are from China, which has ambitions to become self-sufficient in chips. \u201cThis year we are doing better than last year. And we know next year we will be doing better than this year,\u201d says Chuah.<\/p>\n

Penang, like much of Malaysia, was grappling with soaring unemployment in the late 1960s, when local authorities drafted a blueprint to diversify the economy away from rubber and agriculture. The state went \u201call out to attract multinationals,\u201d says Loo Lee Lian, chief executive officer of Invest Penang, a nonprofit that works closely with the government. The island became home to what was then Malaysia\u2019s first free-trade zone, drawing multinational heavyweights such as Advanced Micro Devices, Hewlett Packard, and Intel. Their ranks have grown over the years as new industrial parks have cropped up in the state. Nowadays, Penang boasts an unemployment rate of just 2.2%, more than a full point below the national average.<\/p>\n

Despite its early success, Penang\u2019s importance as an electronics manufacturing hub dimmed in recent years next to that of up-and-coming Chinese cities like Shenzhen. Now the U.S.-China trade war has rekindled interest. Penang was the destination for 35% of Malaysia\u2019s approved foreign direct investment in the first half of 2019, according to Chow Kon Yeow, the state\u2019s chief minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like this kind of challenge,\u201d says Hotayi Electronic CEO Lee Hung Lung, who steered his company through the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 crash. These sorts of cataclysms can generate opportunities for a business like Lee\u2019s, which sells its own products but also does manufacturing for bigger companies. The opening last year of a second Penang facility\u2014a sprawling campus with an artificial waterfall and mini-golf course\u2014was well timed: Hotayi Managing Director Goh Guek Eng says sales are up as much as 40% this year, about twice the norm.<\/p>\n

The challenge is to make sure infrastructure bottlenecks and skills shortages don\u2019t become obstacles to continued investment. Pentamaster\u2019s Chuah says it\u2019s difficult to get engineers to come over from the mainland. Authorities in the state are trying to address a lack of transportation options through an integrated plan that incorporates light rail, monorails, trams, ferries, and water taxis. But it will take years for some of these to be up and running: The first phase of the railway won\u2019t begin operations until 2027, according to a government website.<\/p>\n

Penang\u2019s efforts to lure fresh foreign capital are getting a helping hand from Malaysia Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, who was previously the state\u2019s chief minister. The government\u2019s approved 2020 budget offers foreign businesses a 10-year tax holiday on certain types of investments in the electronics sector.<\/p>\n

Ng Sang Beng, CEO of Aemulus Corp., a business that supplies equipment to the semiconductor industry, says he has fielded five to 10 times more inquiries this year than in 2018 from U.S.- and China-based customers that are reconfiguring their supply chains in preparation for what he predicts will be a prolonged technological Cold War. \u201cThe opportunities are just huge,\u201d he says. \u2014With Yantoultra Ngui and Yudith Ho<\/p>\n

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Bloomberg Businessweek[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”120px” el_class=”height-x120″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n

21<\/h2>\n
\n

Thu<\/p>\n

November \u201819<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":5119,"featured_media":29360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[],"news_year":[271],"news_month":[229],"local_insights_alphabet":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40912,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40909\/revisions\/40912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40909"},{"taxonomy":"news_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_year?post=40909"},{"taxonomy":"news_month","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_month?post=40909"},{"taxonomy":"local_insights_alphabet","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investpenang.gov.my\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/local_insights_alphabet?post=40909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}