Singapore to help India boost electronics manufacturing

Bengaluru, Feb 3:

Singapore, a leading manufacturer of electronics, products and semiconductors, will assist India in expanding electronics manufacturing capacity and develop trade and technical cooperation links between the respective industries in both the countries.

According to an agreement signed here Tuesday by India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) and Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association (SSIA), Singapore-based Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) firms will shift some manpower intensive operations to competitive and proximal locations in India to move up the value chain.

“With 40 IC design companies, 14 silicon wafer fabs and 20 assembly and test units, Singapore nurtures an end-to-end ESDM ecosystem, while India has a huge ESDM market, it lacks adequate manufacturing capacity,” IESA, the premier trade body representing the Indian ESDM industry, said in a statement.

Though demand-supply gap for electronic products and services in India is expected to be $300 billion by 2020, the domestic ESDM industry size is projected to be $400 billion, while local production and services is estimated to be $100 billion.

“Indian firms will also benefit by setting up operations in Singapore, which provides them a better understanding of the trends and demands in the South East Asian markets,” the statement said.

The Singapore government also offers incentives for research and development (R&D), with infrastructure and human resource development for high-end manufacturing to attract investments.

“Singapore firms have opportunity to speed up our efforts to set up semicon fabs in India and expand capacity to manufacture more electronics products to meet the growing demand,” IESA chairman and NXP Semicondcutors director Ashok Chandak said.

The agreement offers opportunity to Singapore firms in building a support ecosystem for chip fabrication units (two), invest in ATMP (Assembly-Test-Mark-Pack) units and in electronic component ecosystem and explore India as a competitive location for hitech competencies.

“The pact also enables Indian firms to set up operations in Singapore to explore South East Asian markets,” Chandak said.

At the government level, the agreement envisages joint fund for R&D, partnership for standardisation in skill development by the sector skill council and collaboration to implement standards in electronics design and manufacturing.

“In Singapore, the manufacturing sector is witnessing growth in the value chain of higher margin activities such as research, development, and services,” SSIA assistant secretary and VLSI Consultancy director Meenu Sarin said in the statement. IANS