India’s rise set to benefit M’sian chip players
16 Dec 2023
AS China falls into deeper debt amid its slowing growth momentum, India has risen to be the poster boy of economic growth among the developing countries.
India has already overtaken China as the world’s most populous country this year, and with a population of over 1.4 billion people, the South Asian country looks to replace China as the world’s factory.
Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who secured a resounding win in the recent state polls, India is stepping up its game to woo foreign companies that are moving out of China.
The country, which has the second-largest English speaking population, is now manufacturing Apple Inc’s latest iphone 15. In 2022, Apple tripled its iphone production in India.
Tesla, for example, is inching closer to building its electric car factory in India potentially in 2024, if the Indian government agrees to massively slash its hefty import duties.
This year alone, Google and Amazon announced their plans to increase long-term investments in India, especially in the areas of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and financial technology.
It was recently reported that the value of announced US and European greenfield investment into India shot up by some Us$65bil or 400% between 2021 and 2022.
On the contrary, investments into China dropped to below Us$20bil in 2022, from a peak of Us$120bil in 2018.
India still has a long way to overtake China economically, but the Indian government has been ramping up infrastructure developments and making headway in exploring new areas of growth.
This includes creating a global semiconductor hub in the country.
Memory chip maker Micron Technology Inc has commenced the building of a semiconductor assembly and test plant in Gujarat, which is the first of its kind in India.
The Us$2.75bil plant, which is part of Modi’s “India Semiconductor Mission” agenda, will see the first made-in-india chip by end-2024.
Malaysia stands to benefit from India’s pivot to semiconductors. Earlier in August 2023, High Commissioner of India to Malaysia B.N. Reddy said the country would like to potentially partner with Malaysian semiconductor players
Given Malaysia’s long-built expertise in the outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing segment, both India and Malaysia could forge greater economic and trade opportunities moving forward.
Source: The Star
