Remarks by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade) Gan Kim Yong at the Advanced Substrate Technologies (AST) New Facility Opening Ceremony

Mr Yoshiyuki Iida, Chief Executive Officer at Advanced Substrate Technologies,

Dr Charlie Kawwas, President of the Semiconductor Solutions Group at Broadcom,

Mr Satoshi Oya, President and Chief Operating Officer at Toppan Holdings,

1. Good morning. I am pleased to join you for the opening of AST’s new facility. Congratulations to AST, Broadcom and Toppan, and thank you to everyone who has worked hard to bring this project to fruition.

2. This investment brings together Broadcom’s expertise in semiconductor design and Toppan’s strengths in advanced substrates. We appreciate your confidence in Singapore and look forward to supporting AST’s growth here.

3. Over the decades, Singapore has steadily built capabilities across chip design, wafer fabrication, equipment manufacturing and advanced packaging.

4. Alongside these activities, we have developed a network of suppliers, research institutions and skilled workers. Together, they provide a strong foundation for companies to grow and undertake increasingly sophisticated work.

5. As technology advances and global competition intensifies, we must build on this foundation and develop capabilities that are difficult to replicate.

6. In semiconductors, this means ensuring that each new investment strengthens the capabilities of the wider ecosystem, and creates opportunities for our companies and people to advance.

7. AST’s new facility is an example that does precisely this.

8. The facility is Singapore’s first that manufactures high-end flip-chip ball grid array, or FC-BGA, substrates, and Toppan’s first such facility outside Japan.

a. These substrates provide the connections that allow chips to work with one another and with the wider electronic system.

9. This adds a specialised capability that complements the semiconductor activities already here, and broadens what Singapore can contribute to the global industry.

10. AST’s plans to conduct research and development here will deepen this contribution.