ON A SELLING MISSION: Awang Tengah (second left), flanked by Len (on his left) and Naroden (on his right) and other members of the Sarawak delegation, addresses Korean captains of industries, including the top brass from Asia Cement Group, at the roundtable discussion in Seoul.
SEOUL: Korean conglomerate Asia Cement Group will be investing RM720 million on a metal silicon manufacturing plant in Samalaju Industrial Park in Bintulu.
The preparation for the site is expected to start in the coming months.
Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment cum Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan told The Borneo Post about this foreign direct investment at the end of the Sarawak Timber Selling and Investment Mission to South Korea.
The mission started on January 9 and ended on January 15.
“This is a trigger industry and will lay the foundation for downstream industries in the value chain of solar and organic silicone businesses, and the first phase is expected to start production by the first quarter of 2014,” he said.
Asia Advanced Materials Sdn Bhd will be Asia Cement’s company to run the three-phase project, which will use state-of-the-art technology.
Welcoming the investment, Awang Tengah said it would create up to 500 jobs and involve technological transfer besides economic spin-offs.
The first phase will have an output of 33,000 tons of metallurgical grade Silicon (Mg-Si) as feed for Polysilicon, and this will increase in the two subsequent phases to 100,000 tons by 2019.
According to Awang Tengah, the site has been approved by the state government and the investor is keen to start site preparation in the first quarter of this year as indicated in a meeting between the company’s president and top brass and the state government officials led by him in Seoul on Jan 12.
Among those at the meeting were Malaysian ambassador to Republic Of Korea Datuk Ramlan Ibrahim, Assistant Minister of Industrial Estate Development Datuk Peter Nansian, Assistant Minister of Investment and Promotion Julaihi Nasrawi, Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh, permanent secretary of Ministry of Industrial Development Datu Liaw Soon Eng, State Planning Unit director Datu Ismawi Ismuni, Mida Seoul director (Investment Section) Mohd Sulkepli Embong and STIDC general manager Datu Sarudu Hoklai.
Asia Cement Co Ltd was represented by president Ko Kyu-Hwan, senior vice-president Lee Hoon-Beom, director of strategic planning Lee Keong-Hee and new business team director Mr Yoon Joon-Sik.
Asia Cement, founded in 1963, is a well-diversified group with involvement in cement and construction materials, and paper manufacturing apart from leisure, finance and investment and education.
According to Ismawi, the project fits into Sarawak’s hi-tech drive and availability of power for manufacturing metal silicon which feeds the chain of polysilicon and other downstream industries in the state.
“It also fits into the scheme of development in Sarawak as the first phase requires 55MW of power which can be supplied through the state grid,” he said.
He said the manufacturing project would be the first by a Korean conglomerate in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).
The selling and investment mission has also attracted keen interest from other potential Korean investors, including global players in the production of hi-tech products, agro-forestry and green business.