THE GIRLS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (GET) 2022 PROGRAMME LAUNCH
SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG YAB TUAN CHOW KON YEOW FOR THE GIRLS IN ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (GET) 2022 PROGRAMME LAUNCH
9 APRIL 2022 @ PENANG SCIENCE CLUSTER
 
YB Prof. Dr P. Ramasamy A/L Palanisamy
Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang
Chairman of the Board of Penang Science Cluster
Dato’ Shidah Ahmad
Vice President & General Manager of Keysight Technologies
Patron of the GET Programme
Dato’ Yoon Chon Leong
Founding Director of Penang Science Cluster
Ms. Bharathi A/P Suppiah
Deputy General Manager of Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI)
Captains of industry & representatives of companies supporting the GET Programme
GET Core committee members, volunteers and Volunteer Alumnae
GET Alumnae and participants of the GET Programme
Teachers
Media Friends
A very good afternoon to all of you!
It gives me great pleasure to be here today to launch the Girls in Engineering and Technology (GET) 2022.
This year, 2022, marks a special occasion, which is a milestone for our beloved State of Penang. This year is the 50th anniversary of the birth of the electronics industry in Penang. Fifty years ago, 8 multi-national companies (MNCs) came to Penang to establish their offshore manufacturing operations in the very first Free Trade Zone in Malaysia located in what was once paddy fields in Bayan Lepas. The arrival of these 8 MNCs launched Penang on our long and rewarding industrialization journey.
And today, 50 years later, Penang is known as the Silicon Valley of the East with an estimated 5% of the global semiconductor export. Yet, Penang has diversified beyond semiconductors to instrumentation, storage, solar, automation and medical devices industries, and is home to many global high-tech companies. I’m happy to note that the ecosystem here in Penang is fully integrated in the global supply chain of high-tech products.
60% of Malaysia’s electrical and electronics exports come from Penang alone. Equally important, our local companies have also grown from young startups servicing the multi-nationals here to become leading technology companies in their respective field and exporting their high- tech products worldwide.
All this certainly gives us a cause to celebrate with joy Penang’s 5 decades of industrialization with our tagline - ‘50 years of Excellence and Beyond’.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Let us all focus on the last word of the tagline ‘50 years of Excellence and Beyond’. The Penang State Government is determined to forge ahead, working with all our stakeholders, to craft policies that will propel Penang to a high-income economy with one of the most livable place in the country and the world, underpinned by a well-balanced work-live-play lifestyle in a green and smart built environment. This is the very essence of the State Government’s Penang2030 vision.
And we are off to a good start in realizing our Penang2030 vision which is now in Phase 2. Penang’s approved manufacturing investments hit a record all-time high of RM76.2 billion in 2021, garnering close to 40% of the country’s investments.
All this translates into one thing – a high demand for skilled and knowledgeable people or talent. The existing high-tech companies in Penang and the new companies setting up their operations here need a consistent supply of talent or highly skilled technical professionals. This is where all of you students come in. You are our talent of tomorrow. You are the future engineers and scientists that will power our industries, solving our industries problems and bottlenecks, creating innovative products and solutions that will touch the lives of consumers world-wide.
You will be doing high-value added work from research, design and development, create fully automated manufacturing lines to managing the global supply chain – competing and collaborating with the world’s best engineers in other countries.
This is the type of work you will be doing in the future should you choose a technical and engineering field for your studies and career path. The world of technology and engineering certainly needs more women professionals because the fit and quality of product designs and solutions get better when design and engineering team members bring diverse perspectives during problem solving due to your different backgrounds and gender.
This is the reason I am very happy today to launch Penang Science Cluster’s Girls in Engineering and Technology (GET) Programme. I am happy to see many companies stepping forward to sponsor this programme as well as providing your women professionals as mentors to this Girls in Engineering and Tech program – NI, ViTrox, Micron, Intel, Keysight, Motorola, and Inari Amertron.
In addition, companies such as Lam Research, Robert Bosch Power Tools, Kontron and Pixart Imaging are also volunteering your female employees as mentors for this programme.
I would like to record my sincere appreciation to all these companies for sponsoring and providing women mentors to our participating students. Your companies and your employees are helping the Penang State Government to inspire our female students in engineering and create our future pool of engineers.
Last but not least, I want to congratulate Penang Science Cluster for partnering with the industry and bringing this exciting Girls in Engineering and Technology programme to more students this year.
Thank you.