BANGALORE: Biocon Ltd, India's largest biotechnology firm, plans to invest an additional US$100 million (RMRM335 million) in its bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing and research facility located in Bio-XCell in Johor.

Its chief operating officer Dr Arun Chandavarkar said the company will plough in some US$100 million in the second phase of the facility, should there be greater demand for its product - insulin for diabetic patients.

The company has invested some US$200 million in the first phase of its facility at Bio-XCell, a custom-built biotechnology park and ecosystem for industrial and healthcare in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor.

Arun said that the first phase of the facility, which was designed to expand based on demand, will be operational by this year.

"As demand increases, it can trigger phase two and phase three. In the next phase of investment, it may be around US$100 plus," he told Malaysian reporters on the sidelines of a Seminar on Business Opportunities with Malaysia on Monday.

The seminar was held in conjunction with the ongoing trade and investment mission to Bangalore and Chennai, led by International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohammed.

Arun said Biocon is developing Malaysian skilled talents by sending them to Bangalore for training. So far, 250 Malaysians have undergone the training.

Another branded and generic pharmaceutical products maker Stelis Biopharma Pvt Ltd is considering spending more in Malaysia after some RM110 has been earmarked for its facility at Bio-XCell.

Stelis chief executive officer Dr Anand Iyer said the first phase of the facility is currently at the design stage and is expected to be ready by early next year.

"Depending on how the business goes, we may invest between US$50 million and US$75 million in the second phase, which may start by the end of 2015," he said, adding that the third phase of expansion is possible.

Anand also expressed his concerns about the sustainability of talent supply in bio-pharma sector as the trained talents may be lured to work elsewhere where the pay package is better.

He proposed for the setting up of a government-private sector university for industrial skill training in bio-tech.

Earlier, Anand had raised the talent pool issue during the dialogue with the minister at the seminar.

Close to 100 people from Bangalore's business community attended the seminar, which saw a dialogue with Mustapa, accompanied by senior officials from Malaysian Investment and Development Authority, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp and Multimedia Development Corp. By Hamisah Hamid

Read more: Biocon to boost investment in Johor facility http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/bioco30/Article/#ixzz2sJxJJGDz

BANGALORE: Skali Group, an integrated e-government and e-business company, expects its technical collaboration with TransIT mPower Labs (Pte) to generate US$10 million (RM33.5 million) in contracts annually.

"We are already doing that value (US$10 million) yearly. We expect it (contract value) to double as we scale up our operations," said Tengku Farith Rithauddeen, group chief executive officer and co-founder .

Tengku Farith said the collaboration is in the areas of enterprise system development using Java-based technology, Liferay product suit, enterprise integration and workflow-based application development.

Speaking after the signing of MoU between Skali E-Business Solutions and mPower Labs, here, last week, Tengku Farith said with the partnership, Skali can do a higher level of programming.

"We see a lot of demand in Malaysia and abroad. With this collaboration, we can scale up our capability in e-government and e-business in other countries as well," he said.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding was witnessed by International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed during his trade and investment mission to India last week.

Under the collaboration, Skali will provide potential opportunities for joint-bidding exercises, work packages for outsource development and identify opportunities for potential offshoring.

Its partner, mPower Labs would provide access to a pool of resources for technical advisory and consultancy, resources for software development and implementation as well as conduct code-sharing on application development.

So far, Skali has penetrated countries like Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, mPower Labs managing director Abdullah Akbar Ali sees Malaysia and Southeast Asian region as important market for the company.

He said with the company's expertise and its partnership with one of the region's largest open source company, mPower Labs hopes to be a key information technology player in Malaysia.

BANGALORE: A subsidiary of a large Indian conglomerate plans to set up an integrated circuit (IC) design centre in Malaysia that will contribute significantly to Malaysia's skills development in the high-technology sector.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the company, which is based here, already has small operations in Malaysia.

"They are keen to scale up their operations and make Malaysia a hub for electrical and electronics (E&E) design," he said here after a series of closed-door meetings with Indian companies as well as Malaysian companies with operations in India.

Mustapa, however, did not name the company but was hopeful that the design centre will be operational by the end of the year.

On the estimated investment involved in the proposed centre, he said it is not so much about the amount of business, but the spin-offs, especially in terms of skilled human capital.

"They will collaborate with universities to produce skilled manpower (for the centre)," he added.

He said this will be significant to Malaysia which has about 30 IC design centres and targets to attract more such centres.

The minister said representatives from other Indian companies whom he had met expressed their interest to set up operations in Malaysia.

"I've invited them to come to Malaysia and they will be meeting with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and Malaysia External Trade Development Corp for discussions," he said.

He said these companies will benefit from a host of generous incentives offered under the Multimedia Super Corridor.

Mustapa is also upbeat on the expansion of bilateral trade and investment with India.

He said although India faced some challenges in the past two years, the country's economic prospects look good this year.

Among the representatives from Malaysian companies that held private discussions with the minister are Scomi Engineering and UEM Group, while the Indian companies include Shriram Land, Mindtree Ltd and Tata Elxsi Ltd.

Mustapa is leading a four-day trade and investment mission comprising small and medium enterprises, as well as to attend the 20th Partnership Summit and Malaysia-India CEO Forum.

BANGALORE: The Malaysian trade and investment mission to India, comprising mainly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is set to achieve positive outcomes as it is a specialised mission, says SME Corp Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim.

Hafsah, who is upbeat on the mission, said this is the first time that a trade delegation is skewed towards the SMEs.

"We expect better outcomes as it is a specialised trade mission focusing on automotive, mechanical engineering, information communication technology and oil and gas, among others.

"This will generate more business engagements by participating companies and they will be more focused," she told Business Times before the delegation left Kuala Lumpur.

Hafsah said through the pre-arranged networking and business-matching sessions, SMEs can explore new markets for their products and services, as well as meet potential business partners in India.

Likewise, the Indian business community can also find business partners and invest in Malaysia.

"I hope this kind of trade mission will be a template because we don't have a dedicated trade mission for SMEs," she added.

The mission, comprising about 30 SMEs, will be led by International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohammed, who arrives here today from Davos, Switzerland, after attending the World Economic Forum.

A tight schedule awaits the minister in the capital city of Karnataka in southwest India and home to many reputable educational and research institutions.

This includes speaking at a plenary session of the Partnership Summit, addressing the Malaysia-India CEO Forum, talks with counterparts from India and the United Arab Emirates, roundtable meeting with India's captains of industry and company visits.

There will also be a signing of a memorandum of agreement between Malaysia's ICT firm Skali Group and mPower Global Inc.

Also in the itinerary is dinner with Malaysian students and the diaspora.

The Partnership Summit, themed "Emerging Global Value Chains: Building Partnerships", will deliberate on the best strategies to help countries overcome obstacles to improve competitiveness and achieve inclusive growth, while the Malaysia-India CEO Forum will cover the promotion of trade and investment as well as explore business opportunities in third countries.

During the forum, some 20 members of the private sector from both countries will focus on areas to improve the business climate, possibilities of business alliances, develop synergies to explore opportunities in third countries, technology transfer and development in new technology, and promote early commercialisation of new and innovative technologies.

Total bilateral trade between Malaysia and India has been on an uptrend - for the first 11 months of last year, it amounted to US$12.34 billion (RM41.1 billion), an increase of 1.4 per cent from the same period in 2012.