DSET CEO Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang recently participated in an interview with The Edge Malaysia, alongside SEMI Malaysia Chairman Ajit Manocha and Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association (MSIA) President Wong Siew Hai, to analyze Malaysia’s role as a critical node in the global semiconductor value chain.
The Edge Malaysia is one of the most influential English-language financial weeklies in Malaysia. Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the publication is renowned for its data-driven reporting and in-depth interviews. It frequently covers topics such as regional supply chain realignment, energy transition, and technology strategy, and serves as a key international source for insights into Southeast Asia’s economic and tech policy landscape.
The report highlights that, according to previous coverage by Bloomberg, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stated that the United States is pressuring allies, including Malaysia, to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductor technologies. Amid intensifying U.S.-China strategic competition, the U.S. places high expectations on Malaysia’s role—particularly in bolstering trust in the supply chain, including in areas such as AI chip packaging and telecommunications infrastructure.
At the same time, the article notes that the ongoing “reshoring drive” reflects a broader shift of certain supply chain segments away from Asia. Within this evolving context, Malaysia—long maintaining a position of neutrality and ranked as the world’s sixth-largest semiconductor exporter—handles roughly 13% of global back-end semiconductor packaging and testing services. Whether Malaysia is prepared to transition from a labor-intensive to a capital-intensive industrial model remains a major challenge.
In response, DSET CEO Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang emphasized that Malaysia must ensure its industry shifts from being “labor-driven” to “capital-driven.” The article further notes that from Malaysia’s perspective, the restructuring of global supply chains presents new challenges for resilience and rebalancing. As manufacturing capacity increasingly shifts toward the U.S. and Europe, there is a risk of crowding out export orders and employment opportunities in Asian economies.
The report concludes with comments from Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), Liew Chin Tong, who affirmed that Malaysia will offer incentives in targeted technological domains and strengthen partnerships with the U.S., Japan, and Europe to secure its place in the ongoing transformation of global industry.
