Liew Calls For One-stop Centre To Boost Semiconductor, Deep-tech Financing
Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong called for a single-window financing centre to accelerate Malaysia’s semiconductor and deep‑tech sectors.
Source: Bernama · July 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM · AI-assisted report
Single-sourceMALAYSIA, 22 JULY 2026 —
Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong called for a single-window financing centre to accelerate Malaysia’s semiconductor and deep‑tech sectors.
Market Impact
The proposal would place the centre inside Penang’s tech cluster and bundle grants, loans and equity to fund projects across the entire value chain, from design to assembly, he told the Edge‑HSBC E&E Symposium 2026 in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Electrical and electronics products already account for 40% of Malaysia’s national exports, Liew said.
Malaysia assembles and tests about 13% of the world’s semiconductors outside China and Taiwan, according to the deputy minister. “Our ambition is for Penang and its neighbour Kulim to stand alongside Silicon Valley, Hsinchu and Brainport Eindhoven as premier global tech clusters,” he told the symposium.
Liew invited industry, capital market players and regulators to propose the structure and governance of the centre. He urged venture and private capital to move upstream into intellectual-property creation and asked local market institutions to widen liquidity, extend credit ratings and supply longer-term financing for the sector. “A warm invitation to the venture and private capital community to come upstream with us,” he said.
Malaysia’s E&E exports are dominated by back-end assembly and testing, where margins are thinner than in design or IP licensing. A dedicated financing hub would help local champions scale into higher-value activities and reduce reliance on imported capital for expansion, Liew said.
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