Latest figures on production and sales of state-owned 1st Silicon (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Malaysia's first wafer foundry located in Kuching, Sarawak are hard to come by, and the authorities are saying as little as possible about affairs in the company, according to the sole opposition representative in the Sarawak legislative assembly Chiew Chin Sing (DAP-Tanjong Kidurong).

The project, Sarawak's single largest investment, has been severely criticised by the opposition and the public in general who fear that its costly investment would not generate the returns as anticipated by the government and this would affect the state badly.

Chiew told malaysiakini today that he had made attempts in the recent sitting of the assembly to get more information about affairs in 1st Silicon but each time, he was prevented by Speaker Awang Asfia Nassar from doing so.

'Funny' discretion

"The speaker disallowed further queries outside the scope of the reply to my written question", he said.

Chiew who is also the former member of parliament for Bintulu described this discretion of the speaker as "funny" when in Parliament, MPs are allowed to pose supplementary questions within the issue in question.

In its efforts to cut down on management costs, the Sarawak government, the major stake-holder in 1st Silicon, has revamped the top management which included the departure of its first chief executive officer Claudio Loddo recently after his contract ended.

The principal activity of the company is the fabrication and sale of silicon wafer chips to the electronics industry. It only started trial production late 2001.

RM6 billion invested

Up to now, close to RM6 billion has been invested in the wafer manufacturing plant which has been adversely affected by the downturn in the market.

In a written reply to Chiew in the recent assembly sitting, Assistant Minister of Finance and Public Utilities Ambrose Blikau said the majority of equity in 1st Silicon remains in the hands of the Sarawak government through the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC).

Ambrose, replying on behalf of Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Finance and Public Utilities George Chan Hong Nam, added that there are other foreign stakeholders like Cypress Semi-conductor International Limited, M & W Zander Holding and FSI International Inc.

When Chiew asked for the breakdown in equities held by the various parties, Ambrose said he was unable to give a reply immediately as he did not have the information with him.

"The honourabble gentleman for Kidurong is free to contact me anytime", he assured.

Chiew told malaysiakini then that the authorities appeared to be avoiding his questions on this single largest of all state investments and he found the evasiveness disturbing.

RM79 million loss

According to its Directors' Report & Audited Financial Statements tabled at the recent sitting of the State Budget Session, 1st Silicon suffered after-tax loss of RM79,023,828 at group level for year ended Dec 31, 2000. At company level, the loss after tax was RM74,436,707.

According to the Report, as at Oct 25, 2000 1st Silicon's issued and paid-up capital was 841,850,000 ordinary shares at RM1 each.

At the time, the Board of Directors comprised the State Attorney-General J.C. Fong, the chairman of SEDC and state assemblyperson for Jepak Talib Zulpilip, managing director of Sarawak Enterprise Bhd and former State Financial Secretary Wan Ali Wan Yubi and academician Prof Dr Mohamad Zawawi Ismail (who resigned on Dec 30, 2000).

On Oct 3 this year, the company announced it had secured US$614 million ( RM2.23 billion) in the form of equity and credit to finance the purchase of manufacturing equipment "in order to cater for capacity ramp up in its wafer fabrication plant in Sama Jaya."

Of this amount, RM902 million (US$290 million) is in the form of equity, Ambrose told the assembly.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini correspondent based in Kuching, Sarawak.