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Malaysia
Penang
Fifty years of electrical and electronics manufacturing built Penang's reputation as the "Silicon Valley of the East." Today the state is pushing upstream from assembly and testing into chip design, spreading its ecosystem across three districts: the original Bayan Lepas manufacturing zone, a new IC-design corridor around it, and the mainland's Batu Kawan expansion.
4
Districts
0
Precincts
11
Clusters
1.8M
Population Size
Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone
Malaysia's first free trade zone, established 1972 - the original "Samurai Eight" manufacturing base and still the beating heart of Penang's E&E economy.
Bayan Lepas Core FIZ
Home to Intel, AMD, Bosch, Infineon, Broadcom, Renesas, HP, Dell, Plexus and Motorola Solutions — the anchor of Malaysia's E&E exports.
Penang Science Park
Supports mid- and downstream suppliers and local SMEs feeding the wider E&E supply chain around Bayan Lepas.
Batu Kawan Industrial District
Penang's newest satellite town on the mainland, pitched by state investment promoters as "Silicon Valley of the East 2..0" - mostly greenfield investment versus Bayan Lepas's brownfield base.
Batu Kawan Industrial Park (BKIP)
Penang's newest and largest industrial park, drawing major greenfield MNC and local large-company investment, including Dexcom's first plant outside the US.
Silicon Island / Green Tech Park
Next-generation land reclamation project extending Bayan Lepas's ecosystem, targeting ~220,000 jobs and a Green Tech Park operational by 2028.
Silicon Design @5km+
A RM120 million, 5-year initiative building a concentrated integrated circuit design ecosystem within 5 kilometres of Bayan Lepas, aligned with the National Semiconductor Strategy.
Penang IC Design & Digital Park
Over one million square feet of office space purpose-built for IC design, R&D and digital-tech investment, launched December 2024.
Silicon Research & Incubation Space (GBS TechSpace)
A 36,000 sq ft one-stop innovation centre housing local IC-design firms including SkyeChip, Infinecs Lab, Silicon X and Sophic Automation.
Penang Chip Design Academy
Talent pipeline built to help meet the national target of 60,000 highly-skilled semiconductor engineers by 2030.
Creative Digital District (CD2)
A 114-acre urban core district in George Town's UNESCO Heritage Zone, launched in 2022 under the Penang 2030 vision to fuse digital tech, software, and the creative economy.
CD² Nucleus (Gat Lebuh China)
The district's academic and institutional core: Universiti Sains Malaysia's creative design hub, Wawasan Open University's School for Digital Technology, plus Digital Penang, Penang Institute and Think City.
CD² Sandbox & Coworking Anchors
The CD² Sandbox at Wisma Yeap Chor Ee is a 5,000 sq ft centre of excellence for startups, accelerators and incubators. Nearby, INFINITY8 Reserve Penang is a ~25,000 sq ft flagship coworking space.
Innovation Ecosystems in Malaysia
Malaysia's tech economy doesn't sit in one place — it's distributed across free industrial zones, data-centre corridors, innovation parks and digital villages.
