Press Releases
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 16 December 2014: Linde ROC Sdn Bhd, part of Germany’s The Linde Group, inaugurated its sophisticated regional remote operating centre (ROC) in Hicom, Shah Alam today, creating a new milestone for the industrial gases sector and affirming Greater Kuala Lumpur as the ideal location to set up a regional base.
The ROC – designed to improve safety, efficiency and productivity – is a shared operations and technical centre of excellence for Linde’s business unit that covers Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
The new centre is the only one of its kind in Greater Kuala Lumpur and it joins Shanghai as the second regional ROC in Linde’s Asian operations.
Gracing this event was Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamad, the Minister of International Trade and Industry, who officially launched the ROC. He was accompanied by Tan Sri Datuk Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali, Chairman of Linde Malaysia Holdings Bhd, Wong Siew Yap, Director of Linde ROC Sdn Bhd, and Ashley Mills, Managing Director of Linde Malaysia Holdings Bhd.
“This long-term partnership will attract more investment and build Malaysia’s offering of innovative high-technology sector and creation of high-skilled talent for the region,” said Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamad. “Being the first of its kind in Malaysia, we are pleased by the opening of this state-of-the-art regional centre and Linde’s plans to invest RM100million each year.”
Mr Wong said the ROC uses the best-in-class technology and operating practices to access data remotely and constantly monitors Linde’s air separation, carbon dioxide and hydrogen plants in the 10 Asian countries. These features significantly enhance plant efficiency and dependability ensuring reliability of gas supply to customers and helps to bring down costs by optimising output and energy use across the sites in the region.
“The ROC is an ideal solution to streamline and optimise Linde’s operations in Asia to commensurate with the business growth in the region,” said Mr Wong.
“Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was chosen by The Linde Group as the location for the ROC over the other countries in the region because it has a ready pool of highly skilled engineers and technicians. We also have good infrastructure, a stable political and economic climate, an English-speaking environment and we are a very livable country.”
“The language and livability benefits are important as 20 percent of our engineers have come from our operations in other countries. They bring in new knowledge and skills to enrich our technical base,” added Mr Wong.
Linde ROC has been awarded with the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status and is one of the pioneer companies to have a designated Cybercentre premise in Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley. The success of Linde ROC operations was made possible with the strong support of MDeC, SSIC and InvestKL.
“With its strategic location, a solid talent base, world-class infrastructure and an operating environment at affordable prices, Greater Kuala Lumpur/ Klang Valley is the ideal place for Linde to manage its plants across Asia,” said Zainal Amanshah, CEO of InvestKL.
“The ROC creates world-class opportunities for Malaysian talents on gaining valuable knowledge, insights and skills, making Greater Kuala Lumpur a strong high-skilled talent base for Malaysia and Asia,” added Zainal.
Staffed by 50 experienced process engineers, the ROC manages 55 plants in Asia from the facility in Hicom, Shah Alam. By 2020, the number is expected to double to 110 plants, with 85 engineers. In Malaysia, the new centre controls 25 plants in eight states in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak in East Malaysia.