With this five-year S$50 million (US$29 million) investment, the company expects the city-state to house 10 percent of its total R&D staff strength by 2009. The facility will be responsible for the development of chips for wireless communications and digital consumer devices.
"To advance MediaTek's R&D capabilities, having the best talent is crucial to our success," said MediaTek chairman M.K. Tsai. "Singapore not only offers one of the world's most business-friendly infrastructures, but also a cosmopolitan setting with a wealth of local and foreign talent.”
The company currently has about 1,000 employees worldwide, including about 80 percent in R&D. According to Tsai, this figure is expected to swell in coming years, with headcount in Taiwan growing to as many as 3,000.
MediaTek, which focuses on making chips for optical storage, consumer electronics and wireless communications products, is one of the largest fabless semiconductor companies in the world. It reported 2003 revenues of US$1.12 billion.
The move comes as a further boost to local trade promotion agency the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which has stepped up its efforts in recent years to woo foreign companies to establish operations here. In particular, semiconductor companies are key targets in EDB's ongoing push.
Earlier this year, programmable logic vendor Xilinx and fabless design house Solomon Systech also announced the setting up of R&D centers in the country.
"The semiconductor industry is an important pillar of Singapore's economy," said Teo Ming Kian, chairman of EDB. "It accounts for 13 percent of the country's manufacturing output and employs close to 28,000 people."
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