Source: MIDA e-News
Western Digital (WD) Corporation is to further expand its research and development and manufacturing in Malaysia with capital investments amounting to US$1.2 billion over the next five years.
The company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk John F. Coyne informed Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak of the company's decision in a meeting with the prime minister at the Prime Minister's Office here on Tuesday.
Western Digital's decision to have the project in Malaysia was made following discussions with Najib during the prime minister's working visit to Washington last month.
The company chose Malaysia for this latest expansion following the success of its operations here over the past 38 years.
The new investment will involve the construction of a new 1.5 million square foot multi-storey building for research and development and manufacture of magnetic head and media components and hard disk drives.
Construction is slated for completion by the third quarter of next year and the facility will be ramped to full capacity over the following five years.
The investment by WD will result in the creation of up to 10,000 additional jobs which involve a substantial number of high qualification jobs, 100 PhD holders, 1,000 degree holders, 3,000 diploma and certificate holders created at the facility over time.
WD in a statement said that this new investment is in line with the New Economic Model goals to create high wage jobs. WD is a global leader in the development and manufacture of hard drives and solid state drives for internal, external, portable and shared storage applications.
The hard drives are used in desktop, notebook computers, mobile devices, corporate networks and home entertainment equipment while its solid-state drives are used in embedded applications such as network communications, industrial, medical, military and aerospace markets.
The company, which celebrates its 49th anniversary this year, has been in Malaysia since 1972, with a cumulative investment to date amounting to US$2.5 billion, and with a total employment in excess of 19,000.
WD's presence in Malaysia over such a long period of time is a testimony to the conducive and cost-competitive investment environment prevailing in the country.
Adapted from Bernama and The Star, 18 May 2010