Philips chief executive officer, Frans van Houten, said the company was keen to expand its lighting and healthcare businesses in Malaysia and provide the best of its knowledge and capability to collaborate with the government and private institutions.

Van Houten said this to reporters after the opening of Philips Lumileds' second high power LED production facility at Bayan Lepas, by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

He said Malaysia offered vast opportunities for expansion and the company would like to tap its intellectual talent."We also like to expand healthcare, energy-efficient lighting as well as consumer health and well-being," he said.

Van Houten said Malaysia was the early adopter and showcased innovations to the world in using LED lights on highways from Kuala Lumpur to the airport in Sepang.

"This project will be used as a reference on LED lighting on highways to make streets more safer and using much lower energy and longer lifetime of 50,000 hours."We hope more countries will follow Malaysia's example in equipping roads with LED lights."

Among the other projects in Malaysia lit by Philips' LED sustainable and energy-efficient solutions were the KLCC, Bukit Aman police headquarters and the Ministry of Finance in Putrajaya.

He said Philips' growth would come from the increased demand for LED-based solutions and products amid the growing importance of environmentally-friendly lighting.

"Malaysia is an important country for Philips in Asia-Pacific. The region accounted for about 35% of the group's total revenue," he said.

Van Houton said Philips, an European company, has its business in Asia which was much larger than in Europe.

"It accounted for about 25% and the market is expanding rapidly. Demand for new digital lighting applications is growing fast and we see strong sales momentum of LED-based Philips products and solutions, with year-on-year growth rates now exceeding 50%," he said.

He said the 300,000 sq ft new facility in Penang will substantially increase the production capacity of Philips' Luxeon power LEDs and allow the group to meet the increasing demand of LED lighting.

Van Houten said Philips not only invested substantially in the facility but also in human capital development to help Malaysia achieve its aspiration to become a high-income nation by 2020.

The new facility is the first in Malaysia to be fitted completely with LED lighting, which will significantly help reduce the facility's carbon footprint and will result in up to 50 per cent savings from lower energy usage.