SSIA will continue rolling out ongoing and new initiatives to meet the industry needs as the economy and social restrictions change

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 27 November 2020 - The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association (SSIA) was held yesterday (26 November). It is the first time the Association held the AGM online due to the COVID-19 situation.

One of the AGM agenda was the election of Board Members for the next term, 2020 -- 2022. Andrew Chong, Independent Board Director and Business Advisor, was re-elected as Chairman of SSIA Board, while Brian Tan, Vice President and Regional President of Southeast Asia at Applied Materials, was the new Vice Chairman of the Board. All the Board members were re-elected to another term in office.

SSIA Chairman Andrew Chong said, "2020 has been a rollercoaster year for the semiconductor industry in Singapore. Our economy was hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry has been fortunate to see less of an impact than many other sectors. Nevertheless, the industry has still been impacted by the supply chain disruptions, trade tensions, and workforce shortage due to travel restrictions."

To stay relevant to the needs of companies, SSIA launched different initiatives in 2020, which included working with global trade associations to seek governments' support in recognizing the semiconductor industry as essential operations should the pandemic situation worsen, hosting the Minister Dialogue session to discuss concerns from the industry, as well as hosting the SSIA Supply Chain Conference inviting local and global speakers to share their supply chain management insights and possible collaborations.

At the AGM, the Board also discussed the business outlook of the semiconductor industry in 2021. Andrew said, "The COVID experience has accelerated the semiconductor industry's growth with the recognition of the industry's essential contribution to enabling the changes to the economy, the way we work, and how we live. The outlook for next year will be an interaction between continuing strong demand for semiconductors versus the supply chain's ability to manage this demand."

In 2021, SSIA will continue rolling out ongoing and new initiatives to meet the industry needs as the economy and social restrictions change. They include:

• Helping companies, especially SMEs, to implement digital solutions in their business processes. A committee to define Singapore Semiconductor's Intelligent Manufacturing Framework has been set up to help local companies understand digitalization needs.
• The Local Ecosystem Committee will help strengthen the local semiconductor ecosystem through closer collaboration between semiconductor manufacturers and their suppliers.

Photos of the SSIA AGM 2020: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/try0wcmkf88392u/AADf7Pfn7rPqFTdfQyCS8Unha?dl=0

More SSIA initiatives can be found here: https://ssia.org.sg/upcoming-ssia-events/