SID Singapore and Malaysia Chapter

Saturday 25th Nov. 2000 marked the formal inauguration of the Singapore and Malaysia Chapter of the SID when it held its first General Meeting in Singapore Productivity and Standards Board with the blessings of SID. There were sixteen standing members present. This meeting elected its first office bearers who formed the Chapter Committee. Also elected is an Advisory Committee. The newly elected members of both the committees came from a good cross section of representatives from industry, government statutory boards as well as academia. This augurs well for the Chapter as its wide representation will enable it to promote the interest of the chapter more effectively. Elected were:

Chapter Committee

Advisory Committee

Mr. T.Y. Sea (Motorola)
Mr. C.W. Mah (Crystal Clear Technology)
Yao Shih Chieh (Sony)
Norman Chung (Economics Development Board)
H.K. Cheong (Varitronix)
Dr. Hu Xiao (Nanyang Technological University)
Dr. Tham Ming Po (Motorola)

Also appointed as Internal Auditor was Ms. Christine Tan of Varitronix.

It is timely for a local Singapore and Malaysia chapter to be formed. Though the display industry in this region may be comparatively small, it nevertheless has quite a long history. The first liquid crystal factories were set up in this region more than 15 years ago. Today this region boasts several factories producing liquid crystal display products for the world markets. These factories were set up by both multinationals as well as home grown industries.

In this region too are several large CRT manufacturers servicing the needs of both the local downstream industries as well as the export markets.

This region will also soon see the establishment of more high end display industry investments. There are strong indications that major international players in the display industry are setting up TFT plants in the not too distant future. Already a major MNC has established an OLED manufacturing facility in the region that is coming into production soon.

In addition to these industry developments, there are also exciting research and development activities going on for display products such as OLEDs and TFELs at various institutions and other research facilities.

More significant however is the recognition by both the Singapore and Malaysian governments of the strategic importance of the display industry and this is reflected in the strong encouragement by the various government agencies of both countries to attract display product investors to this region.

The presence of major display users who has manufacturing plants in the region such as Ericsson, Motorola, Sony, Matsushita and Samsung will continue to spur the growth of this industry. The noticeable trend to migrate their product development activities to this region by companies such as Ericsson and Motorola will further stimulate the growth of the supporting display industry particularly in the area of developing newer and better products to meet the rapidly changing demands of the electronics industry.
As one of the key societies contributing to the development of the display industry in this region, the Singapore and Malaysia Chapter of the SID sees its key challenge in the years ahead as playing a major catalytic role in fostering closer relationships amongst the region’s major players in this industry and, in the process further promoting this industry in this region.

Dr. Baharuddin Abdul Ghani
Director, SID Singapore and Malaysia Chapter