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.