Government to announce next batch of Arm token recipients within three weeks, says Economy Minister.
KUALA LUMPUR: The government expects to announce the next batch of companies receiving the Arm Flexible Access (AFA) and Arm Compute Subsystems (CSS) tokens under Arm Ltd’s semiconductor design access programme within the next three weeks.
Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said he and Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani will jointly chair a meeting this Thursday to review the applicants before finalising the list of new recipients.
“I expect that within two to three weeks we will announce the next group of token recipients, but it is subject to the administrative process,” he told reporters after attending the Arm’s AFA token briefing here today.
In total, the government has allocated 25 AFA and seven CSS tokens, and so far, three companies have been given access to the tokens.
Akmal Nasrullah said the selection of recipients is based on several criteria, including the company’s commitment to creating job opportunities and involvement in the local semiconductor ecosystem.
He said the government’s collaboration with Arm will open up opportunities for local companies to gain access and develop their own chips, in addition to training programmes conducted by Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec) to bolster talent development.
As for local graduate marketability, Akmal Nasrullah said the government stresses developing talent that meets industry needs through strategic collaborations with companies in the semiconductor ecosystem to ensure training aligns with market demand.
He said programmes such as the Selangor Semiconductor Academy (Asem) led by Sidec are developed with the involvement of industry partners so that the training modules and skills taught are in line with the needs of employers.
“What is provided in terms of skills and training needs to be relevant to the demands and needs at the industry level,” he said.
Akmal Nasrullah said most talent produced by the programme is still at a basic level.
The challenge now is to elevate their capabilities while building an ecosystem that offers long term career opportunities, encouraging more skilled workers to remain and contribute in Malaysia, he added.
