MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Yanmar to build R&D centre in Kota Kinabalu
Yanmar to build R&D centre in Kota Kinabalu
21/4/07 (Business Times) - YANMAR Co Ltd has chosen Kota Kinabalu as the location for its first research and development centre outside Japan.
Expected to begin operations before the end of the year, the centre will focus on next generation fuel technologies such as biofuels.
It will also focus on the development of related engine technologies, in line with the company's corporate mission of contributing to an environmentally sustainable society.
"We have chosen Kota Kinabalu because of its well-established business infrastructure and strategic geographic location inside the biomass-rich Asia," said Yanmar president Takehito Yamaoka.
He was speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for the RM16 million centre at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
Its decision to set up a R&D centre in Kota Kinabalu was in response to an invitation extended by Musa when he visited the company's head office in Japan last year.
Yanmar is one of the biggest Japanese multinational companies with offices in many countries and an annual turnover of about RM16 billion.
The R&D centre will come under the Yanmar's Bio Energy Business Development Group created in 2005.
Musa described the establishment of the centre as timely because Sabah, Malaysia's biggest palm oil producing state, is in the forefront of developing alternative fuel in the form of biodiesel from palm oil.
Sabah is currently developing a 460 hectare area in Lahad Datu into a palm oil industrial cluster (POIC), dedicated to palm oil downstream processing.
Musa invited Yanmar to take advantage of the investment potential the Lahad Datu POIC offers.
The POIC has so far attracted 10 companies with investment totalling RM1 billion in the next two years.
Expected to begin operations before the end of the year, the centre will focus on next generation fuel technologies such as biofuels.
It will also focus on the development of related engine technologies, in line with the company's corporate mission of contributing to an environmentally sustainable society.
"We have chosen Kota Kinabalu because of its well-established business infrastructure and strategic geographic location inside the biomass-rich Asia," said Yanmar president Takehito Yamaoka.
He was speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for the RM16 million centre at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
Its decision to set up a R&D centre in Kota Kinabalu was in response to an invitation extended by Musa when he visited the company's head office in Japan last year.
Yanmar is one of the biggest Japanese multinational companies with offices in many countries and an annual turnover of about RM16 billion.
The R&D centre will come under the Yanmar's Bio Energy Business Development Group created in 2005.
Musa described the establishment of the centre as timely because Sabah, Malaysia's biggest palm oil producing state, is in the forefront of developing alternative fuel in the form of biodiesel from palm oil.
Sabah is currently developing a 460 hectare area in Lahad Datu into a palm oil industrial cluster (POIC), dedicated to palm oil downstream processing.
Musa invited Yanmar to take advantage of the investment potential the Lahad Datu POIC offers.
The POIC has so far attracted 10 companies with investment totalling RM1 billion in the next two years.