Source from (The Sun Daily): http://www.thesundaily.my/news/759124
Published: July 03, 2013
Chandran says SMEs are a core part of the company’s business SUNpix: Atiqah Shafri
NI Malaysia is part of National Instruments Corp, a Nasdaq listed group headquartered in Austin, Texas.
The NI-AIN laboratory aims to provide SMEs which are generally cash strapped with access to laboratory facilities for their testing needs. The laboratory will be set up in collaboration with Technology Park Malaysia Corp and SME Corp.
National Instruments managing director of Southeast Asia Chandran Nair told SunBiz in an interview recently that the company expects to have 30 or 40 proofs of concept a year through the NI-AIN laboratory project.
"If you look in terms of the general market space, we service the multinational corporations (MNCs) but a very large part of our efforts is into working with Malaysian companies and SMEs," he said.
Chandran said SMEs are a core part of the company's business because National Instruments is in the business of providing tools to help engineers and scientists to create local intellectual properties, and the best way to do so is to work with local experts in the different areas.
"We will also work with SME Corp Malaysia to ensure a large group of SMEs know that they have access to these technology and expertise."
NI Malaysia supplies products and provide consulting services to SMEs on how to modernise their systems. It caters to a wide variety of industries and is a large provider of test instruments in the manufacturing of electronics goods.
"We are active in the energy markets especially in the electricity distribution sector, radio frequency communications, automotive and aerospace."
On the company's focus, Chandran said National Instruments has allocated some RM240 million to be invested in Malaysia from 2009 until 2015.
It will also continue to use Malaysia as the innovation hub for its products and strategy, alongside its research and development (R&D) centre here.
National Instruments has three manufacturing cum R&D facilities; namely in Austin, Texas, Hungary and in Penang.
"One part of our focus is also to make sure we work with local companies to supply us from the manufacturing and R&D perspective. From the business point of view, our focus would be to work with SMEs in automotive, energy, telecommunications and electronics tests. Another strategy is to work on improving engineering and technical education (at university level)."
NI Malaysia collaborates with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Universiti Malaysia Perlis and Multimedia University to set up joint laboratories for both students and post-graduate research.
The company's major markets in Southeast Asia are Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It has offices in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam and is currently evaluating the prospects of venturing into Myanmar.
"We're still growing fast and there are always new markets that we want to go to but we are nowhere near saturation in the existing markets. Some new areas (in Southeast Asia) that we're looking to do more are robotics and automation, oil and gas as well as transport. We're in these sectors but they are now emerging industries for us."
He said the company is optimistic on the Southeast Asian market for the year due to increased adoption of its platform.
In Malaysia, Chandran said there is a clear shift from low end manufacturing to higher value manufacturing and the R&D.
"Malaysia is a fast growth market for us. It has a good amount of technology option but also a lot of opportunity because there are a lot of areas where we can work on improving productivity and helping people to innovate."
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