‘Growth opportunities aplenty’

KUALA LUMPUR: 2021 will continue to be a year of uncertainty, and as well as a year of reshaping, rebuilding, and recovery of business, according to Siemens Malaysia president and chief executive officer Adam Yee.

There were many growth opportunities in Malaysia especially in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, Yee told the New Straits Times on his hope for next year and view of last year.

“Siemens is a key technology provider for the adoption of Industry 4.0, and that has enabled us to secure a good number of national and cross-border infrastructure projects.

“We want to play a more prominent role as a global company that is a local citizen in Malaysia. We want to be a key player in supporting nation-building projects, especially in the infrastructure area. We also want to help prepare future generations – to upskill and reskill them so that they become the pillars for Malaysia’s economy,” Yee added.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic had challenged companies to accelerate digital transformation of their businesses to survive the global crisis.

“Many companies, especially the more traditional and conversative ones, have had to put aside their reservations about going digital. That, to me, is one of the positive outcomes of the pandemic. I think there’s probably more digital adoption this year than in the last 10 years!”

Yee said as a company that was driving digitalisation, Siemens had been able to help many of its customers embrace digital technologies, and do things that they had not done before.

“We’ve also learned to work with constraints and be agile in responding to market disruptions,” he added.

German technology giant Siemens AG is focused in the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, automation and digitalisation in the process and manufacturing industries, smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, as well as medical technology and digital healthcare services.

Siemens made its first footprint in Malaysia through its first recorded sale here in 1908.

In 1972, the Siemens Semiconductor Group set up its first factories in Malacca and Penang, creating some 1,500 jobs for the nation’s workforce.

In 1973, Siemens set up its first semiconductor factory in Malacca, and a decade later in 1982, Siemens Electrical Engineering Sdn Bhd (SEE) was incorporated.

This led to SEE becoming the sole agent for Siemens AG in Malaysia, representing all major groups in 1985.

In 2000 S.E.E. Sdn Bhd was known as Siemens Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Since its establishment, Siemens Malaysia has contributed to a significant number of milestone nation-building projects that include the Klang Valley MRT and ERL Express city-airport connection, as well as resource-efficient and technologically-advanced gas turbines for power plants.

Source: NST