National Instruments investing USD80 million in Penang plant

Two days ago, I briefly dropped by the ballroom at Hotel Equatorial to witness a press conference called by US-based National Instruments to announce their investment of USD80 million into their new facilities in Penang.

I was a bit late so I did not get to see the Chief Minister speak but I learnt later that National Instruments would be setting up their new R&D and operations facilities on a 6.8-hectare site on the island. It's targeted to employ about 1,500 people when it opens in 2010 but of course, spill-over effect on the local economy - SMEs and other support services - will benefit even more of the local population. I also learnt that this million-dollar deal was only sealed 17 days earlier so I'm quite impressed by the speed with which this announcement was made public. There's a will shown by the state government to get things moving fast. I like it: it's professional.

The plant will be NI's first in the Asean region and third major global operations centre. NI president and CEO Dr James Truchard (left) said their management team had visited many countries and finally settled on Penang because of the environment, highly skilled workforce and the close proximity of the plant to the Asian market. "Our goal is to be a major centre of manufacturing and R&D globally by 2015 when the plant is running at full capacity."

And their CFO and senior VP of manufacturing and IT operations, Alex Devern (right), added that Penang was selected because of the availability of electrical and electronics resources. "We anticipate that by 2015, this site will be capable of generating 40 percent of global revenue amounting to approximately US$650 million annually."

NI is a global leader in computer-based measurement and automation hardware with its headquarters in Austin, Texas. It has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries.