Sony Corporation boosts Malaysian investment to move upmarket
Sony Corporation boosts Malaysian investment to move upmarket
KAJANG, Malaysia (AFP): Japan's Sony Corp. on Monday announced
plans to invest more than US$10 million in research and
development at its color television plant here as part of a move
to introduce more sophisticated products.
Company officials said the Malaysian plant must move upmarket
to make more sophisticated products such as high-definition TVs
as other markets became more attractive for manufacturing low end
products.
They were speaking at a ceremony to mark the production of the
20 millionth color television at the plant at Kajang, south of
Kuala Lumpur, since operations began in 1988.
Koichi Nakamura, managing director of local affiliate Sony
Technology Malaysia, said the company will spend 40 million
ringgit (US$10.5 million) in television set research in the year
to March.
He said the plant produces 2.5 million color sets annually, of
which 60 percent are exported to Japan, with the rest going
elsewhere in the Asian region.
Skilled manpower, reliable component suppliers, a stable
exchange rate and lower operation costs are among the factors
which had made Malaysia a key TV production center, he said.
Hideo Kojima, Sony's chief representative for Malaysia, said
that in the last five years Sony has been moving its TV research
to Malaysia from Japan.
"Malaysia is the first country in the pan-Asian region to have
an R and D center. It has about 400 people involved in product
design and planning," he told AFP.
Kojima said Sony began looking at Malaysia in 1986 when the
yen appreciated, forcing it to shift its operations to Asia.
"Malaysia provided a suitable environment -- a stable political
environment, cheap labor costs and an English-speaking country,"
he said.
Sony wants to transfer production of more sophisticated
products to Malaysia with countries such as China and India, with
huge markets, emerging as competitors for lower-end products.
"We are producing things like the Walkman here. Should we
shift these low-end products to newcomers like China? That's in
our mind now."
Kojima said Malaysia must undergo a "transformation" and adopt
policies which would enable Sony to produce high-end electronic
products such as high-definition color TVs, which are now
produced only in Japan.
"In the next three to five years, definitely we can
transform," he said.
But Kojima said telecommunications carriers such as Telekom
Malaysia needed to improve their broadband capacity and the
quality of workers in terms of education and skills also had to
be improved.
In Japan and Europe high-definition television broadcasting
services were available and Malaysia was also considering their
introduction, he said.
Kojima said Sony could form a partnership with state
broadcaster Radio Televisyen Malaysia to provide high-definition
TV broadcasting.