The Official Opening of Paramit Penang, Malaysia

Speech by Chief Minister of Penang
The Official Opening of Paramit Penang, Malaysia

11th January 2017

 

Good afternoon and welcome. I am pleased to officiate the opening of Paramit's new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility here in Penang Science Park, Bukit Minyak.

Paramit Corporation sure have had a long history where it all began in 1988 in Morgan Hill, California in the southern tip of Silicon Valley. Paramit as a Medical Device & Instrument Manufacturing factory was co-founded by Mr Billoo who has been the chief architect of Paramit’s vision and strategy. And with Mr Michel’s extensive experience in a multi –cultural and international environments such as Belgium, US, Mexico, Hong Kong, Austria, France and Germany will surely bring a contribution to the development of Penang.

We respect Paramit’s commitment and leadership to continuing to drive the Medical device and life sciences instruments within the medical industry. Paramit in Penang will raise Malaysia’s visibility on the world map for genetic and molecular testing, robotic surgery, cancer treatment. Paramit wants to tap into the Malaysian made medical devices’ double digit growth last year and exports in the range of RM 17.8 billion.

Secondly, with the total investment of Paramit in Penang since 5 years ago of around $40M USD and exports of $250M USD and long term plans to start development work, will surely bring incredible opportunities to Penang and Malaysia in the medical device industry and medical innovations.

Penang Science Park facility doubles the company’s previous Penang capacity with the current employment of 530 employees, which will ultimately expand to a workforce of 800 employees.

Despite the challenging global economic environment, Penang has recorded strong investment over last 8 years. For the 8 years period between 2008-2015, Penang recorded an investment of RM 55 billion, a 90% increase compared to the previous 8 years period 2000 to 2007 of RM 29 billion. Out of the RM55 billion approved investment recorded from 2008-2015, RM13.7 billion or 25% were from US investors, which makes US as the largest FDI contributor to the Penang economy. In the first eight months of 2016, USA is the third largest manufacturing FDI contributor to Penang with FDI totalling RM390.3 million.

The State government will continue to focus on good governance and clean leadership, increasing our talent pool and improving public infrastructure. We also seek convergence in the public, manufacturing and services sector to enable us to partake in the 4th Industrial Revolution of Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, IOT and e-commerce.

Once again, I would like to congratulate Paramit Malaysia on its official opening today and wish them tremendous success for the future.

Thank you