National Instruments eyes US$2b revenue

KUALA LUMPUR: National Instruments (NI), a global technology company,
aims to double global revenue from US$1 billion annually, through its
investment in Malaysia.

The
managing director of NI Penang, Raj Purushothaman said Malaysia will be
the largest Research and Development (R&D) Centre for the company
outside of its headquarters in Austin, Texas in the United States.

"Malaysia will also be a major hub for NI in the Asia Pacific," he told a media briefing here today.

NI,
which began operations in Malaysia in 2009 with a capital investment of
US$80 million, today announced its expansion plans in Malaysia over the
next five years.






This includes the R&D centre as well as the start of manufacturing by the fourth quarter of this year.

"The expansion will be on the existing 9.3 hectare (23 acres)facility in Penang over two phases," Raj said.

He said at present, NI has about 165 staff at its Penang facility, with most of them being engineers and professionals.

"NI, over the next five years, will recruit 250 engineers in R&D," he added.

Raj said over a period of five years or more, plans are in the pipeline to have a total workforce 1,000 to 1,500 employees.

Its
vice president of Penang R&D, Scott Rust said NI is expanding its
R&D efforts in Penang because of the advantages that Malaysia
offers.

"Malaysia's highly talented and creative workforce,
excellent university system, cost-competitive environment, and strong
support from the government, match well our global R&D growth plan.

"It will help us accelerate the introduction of new and innovative products to meet customers' needs," he added.

Minister
of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said NI
has chosen Malaysia as its location to undertake the design,
development, manufacture and service of test, measurement and
automation hardware and/or software products.

"This project, a
result of the continuous efforts to attract high quality investments by
the Federal government and the Malaysian Investment Development
Authority (MIDA), has taken five years to materialise," he said in his
speech at the event.

His speech was read by MIDA chief executive officer, Datuk Noharuddin Nordin.

Mustapa
said NI's investment, one of the Entry Point Projects (EPP) under the
government's Economic Transformation Programme, will assume an
important role in supporting the test and measurement sector in the
country.

"The test and measurement sector is identified as a key enabler for many other sectors.

"It
can be leveraged to speed up the expansion of other electronic industry
sectors in Malaysia towards achieving the Gross National Income (GNI)
of RM1.3 billion and 7,000 jobs by year-end," he added. --BERNAMA