Speech by Mr Lim HNG kiang, Minister for Trade AND Industry, at the opening of Xilinx’s Asia Pacific Headquarters and Test Facility at Changi Business Park on Friday, 14 September 2007, 9.30AM

Mr Wim Roelandts, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Xilinx

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning

I am pleased to be here to open Xilinx’s Asia Pacific Headquarters and Test Facility at the Changi Business Park. Indeed, I am amazed not only by the speed of Xilinx’s decision to locate here, but also by the speed at which you have made this happen.

It was only in December 2003 that Xilinx made the decision to establish itself here, and within a few months, the Asia Pacific regional headquarters was set up. Your operations have grown so quickly and within a short span of two years, you needed a new building to house all your activities. Xilinx has expanded its R&D presence here and multiplied its Integrated Circuit (IC) testing capacity by four times. Staff headcount has also tripled from the original 80 which you started out with.

This is an impressive achievement. As one of the world’s largest fabless semiconductor companies and as a top supplier of programmable logic devices, Xilinx has given Singapore’s business environment, as well as engineering capabilities, a strong vote of confidence when it decided to entrench its growing business here.

Singapore’s semiconductor industry has been growing robustly since it started some 30 years ago. We are a significant player in the worldwide semiconductor industry today. In terms of wafer fabrication capacity, we are ranked number two by city after Hsinchu, Taiwan, and number six by country. Today, we account for about 10 per cent of the world’s foundry wafer output.

The semiconductors industry is also now more vertically integrated than before. Today, we have 40 IC design companies, 20 chip assembly and test plants, and 14 silicon wafer fabrication facilities. Over the next few years, we will see a few more new wafer fabrication plants starting up. All these quality players are making the semiconductor landscape here even more vibrant and varied.

Even with these successes, we are not letting up in our efforts to grow the sector. Singapore will continue to build on its strengths and continue to stay ahead of the competition.

I am glad that Xilinx has trusted Singapore with its key technology. Xilinx’s R&D team based here is the first in Singapore to design products based on the 45-nanometer technology node. This is a stamp of recognition for Singapore’s IC design abilities, and will help strengthen Singapore’s repute in the semiconductor industry.

Semiconductors, which is a highly knowledge- and innovation-dependent industry, will continue to be a key focus of the Singapore economy. I would like to reassure Xilinx of Singapore’s commitment to developing the semiconductor industry and I encourage you to take on more R&D activities here. Once again, I would like to extend my appreciation to Xilinx for its confidence in Singapore. I hope to see this partnership flourish further in the years ahead.

It is now my pleasure to declare Xilinx’s Asia Pacific Headquarters and Test Facility at the Changi Business Park open. Thank you.