March 11, 2003 – Geneva, Switzerland – STMicroelectronics will invest more than $200 million in Singapore over the next three years to increase its production capacity.

The French-Italian semiconductor firm, which has already invested $1.5 billion in the Singapore over the last two decades, will put in another $250 million to raise the output from its 150- and 200mm wafer plants, reported the Financial Times.

“We believe that Singapore, for ST, will remain competitive even with China for the next 10 years,” said Pasquale Pistorio, president and CEO of ST. “If a company is starting to install a new 150mm plant, they’d go to China because it’s cheaper. But we’ve almost 20 years experience here… with the knowledge and depreciated equipment, we will continue to be competitive,” he said.

Singapore is the Asia Pacific headquarters of the chipmaker and accounted for 44% of the firm’s total sales of $6.32 billion in 2002.