Malaysia Seeks to Boost Semiconductor Collaboration with India

• Malaysia seeks MoU with India for semiconductor collaboration.
• Complementary ecosystems to boost trade, innovation.
• Engage India at state level for people-to-people ties.

According to Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong at the India-ASEAN Strategic Dialogue forum, Malaysia wishes to deepen its cooperation with India in the semiconductor field and create new nodes of trade and innovation by combining two complementary ecosystems.

Liew mentioned that the industry could become "a key component of the India-Malaysia relationship," and reviewed the sector as follows: “India and Malaysia have enormous potential to collaborate, especially in semiconductors, and there are many areas where we can work together.”

Environmentally, the Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia BN Reddy is keen on signing a memorandum of cooperation on semiconductors and points to the mutual benefits as a primary reason for such a step. Liew spoke about the importance of collaboration with India not only at the national level but also at the state one, considering the scale—Gujarat's 60 million people are comparable to Malaysia's 34 million, while Uttar Pradesh's 241 million are much greater.

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“ASEAN must interact on every level, which means extending the people-to-people contacts not only to the 28 states but also to the 8 union territories of India,” he said thus strengthening relations that are less dependent on the two superpower continents. Liew envisioned an ASEAN-India partnership embracing not only common concerns such as peace, human development, the rise of middle class, and joint technology advancement.

This is in tune with Malaysia's ambitions for the semiconductor sector, which accounts for 13% of GDP and has attracted $6 billion of investments in the context of the global reshoring trend. India is an ideal partner in such a scenario as it aims at becoming a $100 billion semiconductor market by 2030 while offering strengths in design, manufacturing, and R&D.

By the same token, the relationship could be a game-changer for both India and Malaysia raising their bilateral trade from the current $18 billion, which is a combination of assembly and testing strengths of Malaysia with design talent from India, hence, ASEAN-India ties leading to the 2025 ASEAN-India Summit agenda being strengthened further.