He said the NSS is designed to foster collaboration with companies across Asean, Asia and the rest of the world.
“Ultimately, the NSS is a means for Malaysia to advance and democratise technology for the good of all humanity,” he said in a special address at the Semicon Southeast Asia 2024 Conference here today.
Anwar added that Malaysia will work to attract major buyers of advanced chips, such as Apple, Huawei and Lenovo, to bolster the industry.
The NSS sets out three phases, with the first focussing on Malaysia leveraging its existing industry capacity to modernise outsourced assembly and testing with advanced packaging.
The second phase focusses on advancing the country’s capabilities in cutting-edge logic and memory chip design, fabrication, testing and looking to integrate the purchasers of these chips.
“The final phase aims to support the development of world-class Malaysian firms in semiconductor design, advanced packaging and manufacturing equipment,” Anwar said.
The NSS outlines five main targets, starting with plans to attract at least RM500 billion in investments under the first phase.
Anwar said the NSS targets domestic investments – with a focus on integrated circuit design, advanced packaging and manufacturing equipment – and foreign direct investments that are mainly focussed on manufacturing equipment.
The second target is the establishment of at least 10 Malaysian companies in design and advanced packaging with revenues between RM1 billion and RM4.7 billion and at least 100 semiconductor-related companies with revenues close to RM1 billion.
Anwar said the third target is to make Malaysia a global research and development hub for semiconductors with world-class universities, corporate research and centres of excellence, “blending the very best of Malaysian and international talent”.
The NSS also targets to train and upskill 60,000 high-skilled Malaysian engineers.
The last target is to allocate at least RM25 billion in fiscal support to operationalise the NSS with targeted incentives, details of which will be announced by the investment, trade and industry ministry soon.