Friday, December 3, 2004
STMicro to invest $1.2 billion in Singapore
Reuters Singapore, December 2
Europe's biggest chipmaker STMicroelectronics will invest S$2 billion ($1.2 billion) over the next two years in Singapore, the city-state's Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang said on Thursday.\
The Franco-Italian chipmaker's decision to invest S$2 billion at a new TechnoPark to increase capacity was a boost for Singapore's electronics industry, Lim said at the launch of the facility.
STMicroelectronics, headquartered in Geneva, accounted for nearly 19 per cent of Singapore's semiconductor production last year, a key part of its electronics industry.
Electronics manufacturing makes up a quarter of Singapore's $95 billion economy and accounts for half of non-oil exports.
"We will continue to build on manufacturing to grow our economy, and the Economic and Development Board targets to double our total manufacturing output to S$300 billion within 15 years," the Minister said.
The investment was on top of a previous S$4.7 billion invested by the company in Singapore, making STMicro the fourth biggest industrial investor in the country, according to state television.
STMicroelectronics, which produces microchips in Singapore for products such as cell phones, said in October it expects the global chip market to grow by 18 to 20 per cent in 2004 as chip demand rebounds from a three-year slump.
STMicroelectronics' production in Singapore totalled S$3.9 billion last year, Lim said. This compared with overall industry production of S$21 billion.
STMicroelectronics officials were not available for comment.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.