KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, June 18 (Bernama) -- Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH), the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, today announced an expansion of services in its Global Repair Centre located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The Australian Acting High Commissioner to Malaysia Michael Growder, together with officials from the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), Association of Malaysian Medical Industries (AMMI), Ministry of Health (MOH), KPJ Healthcare University College and other related bodies attended the ceremony to mark the expansion of the facility. 

The Cochlear Global Repair Centre was established in 2015, consolidating eight centres around the globe into one world-class facility. Since its opening, the Global Repair Centre has delivered more efficient, faster and consistent external sound processor repairs for customers, enabling a better customer experience and even greater processor reliability. Cochlear is now expanding its services to assemble replacement Nucleus 6 sound processors, where required, for existing customers covered by Cochlear’s processor warranty.

In acknowledging the positive contributions it brings, Dato’ Abdul Majid Ahmad Khan, Chairman of MIDA, said “Cochlear is an example of the type of investments we want to see coming into Malaysia. We are pleased to note that the company has employed 195 Malaysians so far. Cochlear’s effort to enhance the skills of these local employees, especially in the field of hearing implants, is commendable whereby these employees had undergone specific trainings in Malaysia and Australia. We believe that these local talents will gain so much experience from the transfer of technology and know-how.” 

Cochlear Malaysia is an important part of the Company’s global business. Beginning with a small IT team in 2010, today Cochlear Malaysia is a thriving service centre which hosts the Global Repair Centre, Corporate Shared Services (including IT, customer service and procurement), the Company’s regional sales team, and a small research and development function.

“Leveraging on the availability of the established supporting industries conforming to the world-class standard, we trust that Cochlear will be able to enjoy the many advantages Malaysia offers. MIDA will continue to be Cochlear’s partner and provide our full support to facilitate its business in the country,” added Dato’ Abdul Majid.

“Kuala Lumpur has proven to be a great place to centralise our global, support services,” said Greg Bodkin, SVP Supply Chain & Operational Excellence, Cochlear. “We have significantly grown our workforce with the right skills to support our business globally. The legal and regulatory environment is pro-business, tax rules are attractive and English-language skills are abundant. For our Global Repair Centre, we’ve been able to hire local engineers and electronics technicians, who repair the sound processors for customers around the world and deliver to Cochlear’s global standard of quality.”

“We’re a growing company in a growing industry,” Bodkin added. “As we expand our global supply chain capacity to support this growth, Malaysia is and will increasingly be an important part of our global operations network.”

Dato’ Abdul Majid also said, “The medical devices industry has been identified as one of the high potential growth industries under the 11th Malaysia Plan due to its strong linkages to other manufacturing subsectors. Therefore, we view this project as a catalyst to boost the development of the medical device ecosystem in the country and hope that it will attract other global medical device industry players.” 

About Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH)

Cochlear is the global leader in implantable hearing solutions. The company has a global workforce of more than 3,500 people and invests more than AUD$160 million each year in research and development. Products include cochlear implants, bone conduction implants and acoustic implants, which healthcare professionals use to treat a range of moderate to profound types of hearing loss. Since 1981, Cochlear has provided more than 550,000 implantable devices, helping people of all ages, in more than 100 countries, to hear.  

www.cochlear.com

About MIDA
 
MIDA is the government's principal promotion agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to oversee and drive investments into the manufacturing and services sectors in Malaysia. Starting operations in 1967 with a relatively small set up of 37 staff, MIDA has grown to become a strong and dynamic organisation of over 700 employees. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur Sentral, MIDA today has 12 regional and 20 overseas offices. MIDA continues to be the strategic partner to businesses in seizing the opportunities arising from the technology revolution of this era. For more information, please visit www.mida.gov.my and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. 

Source: Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA)

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