MEDICAL DEVICES INVESTMENT A PRIORITY - MIDA

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) is  increasing its focus on the medical devices industry which has been identified as one of the industries with high growth potentials under the 11th Malaysia Plan.

Chairman Datuk Abdul Majid Ahmad Khan said this was due to the industry’s strong linkage to other manufacturing subsectors. 

"We have a number of incentives for them and we are concentrating in this area," he told reporters after officiating Cochlear Ltd's newly expanded global repair centre here today.

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Australian-based Cochlear Ltd is a medical devices company that designs, manufactures and supplies implantable hearing solutions.

Abdul Majid said as of 2018, 382 medical devices projects with investments worth RM18.4 billion had been implemented in Malaysia, creating more than 71,000 jobs.

In the first quarter of this year alone, he said, MIDA approved another six medical devices projects worth RM309.3 million.

Abdul Majid said the country's medical devices industry comprised over 200 establishments, including small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and multinational corporation.

"This has strengthened the country's position as an outsourcing destination and global supplier of medical parts and components," he said, adding that over 90 per cent of the medical devices manufactured in Malaysia were destined for the export market.

"This shows that Malaysian-made medical devices are of world class quality and recognised for its adherence to the global regulatory compliance systems," he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Majid said Cochlear's global repair centre would boost the development of medical devices ecosystem in the country.

"It is hoped that this will attract other global medical devices industry players to also invest in Malaysia," he said.

Cochlear’s Malaysia operations director, Samuel Pooranakaran said the company invested about RM3 million over the past nine months and hired 27 additional employees for its newly expanded operations.

He said the centre would be assembling replacement Nucleus 6 sound processors for customers worldwide, adding that the company had consolidated 11 of its global repair centres into a single centre in Malaysia.

-- BERNAMA