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DATE 01 Nov 2003
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd's strong contribution to Singapore's economic development has been recognised by the Singapore Government which recently conferred it the Distinguished Partner In Progress (DPIP) Award. Murata's partnership with Singapore dates back to 1972. Since then, its success here has been phenomenal.
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Murata Electronics Singapore (Pte) Ltd was set up in 1972 and was one of the first manufacturing bases of Murata outside Japan. The Kyoto-based Murata Group saw great potential in Singapore and its faith was justified. In its 30 years' economic journey with Singapore, Murata Electronics has grown in tandem with Singapore's economic development and has earned the status as one of few companies which has never suffered a retrenchment, even during economic downturns. Murata also contributes to the Singapore community through regular fund raising and charity events. For its outstanding contributions, it received the Distinguished Partner In Progress (DPIP) Award, the highest corporate award presented by the Singapore Government to recognise companies for their industry leadership and contribution to economic, social and community activities.
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Yasutaka Murata, President, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd, was in Singapore at the end of August, to accept the prestigious award from Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan personally. But Mr Murata is no stranger to Singapore, having first visited in 1974 when he was Director of Murata Electronics and he has been coming back at least once a year since.
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THEN AND NOW
Murata is proud to be "a pioneer investor" in Singapore's high-tech quest in the 1970s. And from 1972 when Murata Electronics Singapore was set up, it has grown in tandem with Singapore's shift from a labour-intensive industrial focus towards technology and knowledge-intensive activities. Asked what major changes he has seen here over the last three decades, Mr Murata mentioned with a grin: "the improved standard of living." He also recalled the 30 years as a period of explosive growth for the electronics industry in all sectors. They have also been periods of intense competition for the industry with many companies falling by the wayside. Murata, in contrast, stayed at or near the front of its field.
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Murata Electronics continues to expand its operations in Singapore and in the process, create even more employment opportunities. Murata also introduced various innovative measures such as flexi-wage and flexi-shift working systems which helped lower business costs and meet "unforeseen market order situations." He also cited another key success factor as upgrading employees' abilities through training.
For instance, when Murata Electronics was first set up, it had just 50 workers producing mainly single disc capacitors. With the growth of more sophisticated devices and increasing miniaturization, the company shifted to multi-layer capacitors. And today, Murata Electronics is one of the world's largest and most vertically integrated manufacturing plants for chips monolithic ceramic capacitors (CMCCs) outside of Japan. CMCCs are vital components for the communications equipment, consumer electronics and automotive industries. Other products manufactured here include ceramic filters and microwave devices and modules as well as casings and tapes for the packaging of capacitors.
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Today, Murata's three facilities here employ 1,400 staff and manufacture and distribute capacitors for the regional and global markets. This includes 150 staff who handle sales and logistics.
On why it is able to do well here, Mr Murata said: "The kind of high-end, high-tech products Murata offers require precisely what my company finds attractive in Singapore: highly qualified engineers and skilled workers able to turn out these sophisticated quality products." Hence, for Murata and its chief officer, Singapore remains a prime venue for manufacturing.
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Mr Murata praised the Singapore government's policy of upgrading the skills of its workforce. This had helped his company to successfully move into new areas and to continue to offer quality products. His factories here are able to increase productivity and reduce unit costs, making them reliable and economically attractive.
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He specifically cited the training programmes provided by the Institute of Technical Education which had benefited Murata's older workers recruited in the 1970s and 1980s. He noted that such programmes allow employees "to meet the challenges of upgrading our technologies, so as to improve their value-added contributions." He expressly pointed out that these measures were reasons why Murata Singapore had not conducted any retrenchment in the past 30 years.
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On references to Singapore as a "high cost" location, Mr Murata said: "Our home base is Japan and so compared to Japan, Singapore is not really a high-cost country." Regarding competition from countries like China and Thailand, he said that the sophisticated high-end production here, which is not labour-intensive, requires skilled workers which Singapore clearly has. The highly-skilled workers here are a more important factor than wage costs, he explained.
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Mr Murata sees Singapore as continuing to be her big production and sales base outside Japan, serving its customers throughout the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
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A MODEL CORPORATE CITIZEN
An important part of the Murata strategy has been to localise management. They do so by bringing employees from the various subsidiaries to company headquarters in Kyoto for training. This policy has been implemented in Singapore for the last 20 years and its success is evident. For instance, Kang Choon Tong, General Manager of Murata Electronics Singapore, trained in Kyoto and brought his training back to Singapore. In this way, the parent company gets to mesh the corporate culture of subsidiaries, such as the one here, with the overall culture of the company.
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Indeed, Murata Electronics Singapore has proven to be an outstanding corporate citizen in a host of ways. For instance, in 1996, a committee was set up to, among others, raise the level of awareness amongst all its employees towards environmental issues. A year later, it was awarded the official ISO 14001 certification, making it the first factory manufacturing chip monolithic ceramic capacitors in the Murata group to be so certified outside of Japan.
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Indeed, Murata Singapore has garnered a long roster of awards and citations from the Singapore government and industry bodies, culminating in the high distinction of this year's DPIP Award.
As all the above indicates, Murata and Singapore have formed a solid win-win partnership over the years. Both have grown together as they've advanced.
THE MAN BEHIND THE COMPANY
Yasutaka Murata was born in 1947 in Kyoto, the city where his father, Akira Murata, had three years earlier founded the company that was to become the Murata conglomerate.
Groomed for success in the world of electronics, Murata graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Quantitative Analysis. The following year, he joined the company bearing his family name. In 1974, he was appointed a Director of Murata Electronics Singapore. From there, it was a steady climb up the ladder of success, highlighted by his ascension to Executive Vice President of Murata in 1982 and Corporate Executive Vice President seven years later. Murata has served in that position since. Married with two sons, Murata lists his hobbies as listening to Classical music and studying butterflies.
PARTNER IN PROGRESS
The Distinguished Partner in Progress Award (DPIP) is an avenue for Singapore to show its appreciation to its business partners. The award, which recognises the outstanding contributions of foreign companies to Singapore's economic growth, was established in 1991. Over the 12 years of its existence, the DPIP has been bestowed on 18 major international companies including this year's dual recipients, Murata, along with Pratt and Whitney.
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Accepting the award, Mr Murata acknowledged the honour as "a significant milestone" for his company. He was full of confidence that Murata and Singapore can work together "to deepen the ties binding us together." It was the right decision, he said, that Murata had chosen Singapore as its production and sales base outside Japan and he was confident that Murata would continue to enhance its partnership with Singapore further for many years ahead.
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He praised the Singapore Government for being "very decisive, resourceful and prompt" in taking various actions to overcome problems and crisis.
"Your government," he added, "has demonstrated and won the confidence of the world.".
JAPAN AND SINGAPORE - A PRODUCTIVE AND PROFITABLE PARTNERSHIP
Since Singapore's industrialisation in the 1960s, Japanese investments in the country have grown by leaps and bounds. Today, Japan is Singapore's second largest foreign investor in terms of cumulative manufacturing investments and is its third largest trading partner. Of the more than 6,000 international companies operating here, 1,600 are Japanese.
This long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship was further cemented last year during an official visit to Singapore by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Koizumi then took an unprecedented step for a Japanese leader - he signed the ground-breaking Japan-Singapore Economic Agreement for a New Age Partnership (JSEPA), the first such free trade pact Japan has sealed. The JSEPA, a natural progression of the strong Japan-Singapore ties, came into effect at the end of November last year.
Under the terms of this agreement, 99% of bilateral trade between the two Asian partners will be duty-free, effectively making 94% of Singaporean exports to Japan duty-free. (The previous figure was 85%.)
This pact will allow Singapore-based companies, including Murata, to benefit from reduced tariffs on a broad array of products, from chemicals, pharmaceuticals and petroleum to transport equipment, metal products and electrical or electronics products.
Significantly, the JSEPA also covers such key areas as trade investment, information technology and human resources. For his part, Murata company president Yasutaka Murata sees only benefits accruing to his company from the new trade agreement. "If tariffs are reduced, and duties reduced, it can only be good," he says with a knowing smile.
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