SINGAPORE - Rolls-Royce subsidiary MTU Asia, which makes high speed engines, such as marine ones, opened its new headquarters building here on Friday.
The facility, in Tukang Innovation Park in Jurong with 26,500 sqm of floor space, includes a new training centre with 30 training engines and 15 electronic simulators. The six instructors, five of whom are local, will be able to teach up to 720 employees, customers and partners from the region each year.
MTU Asia will also have the research and development capability to develop customised engines for the Asian market, the first time it is doing so outside of Germany.
Minister for Manpower Lim Swee Say said at the opening event that the new facility was aligned to the Government's "pro-business commitment to businesses and our pro-worker commitment to our people".
"This facility will lead to better investment and better jobs in Singapore," said Mr Lim, adding that economic development should be a means to an end, ensuring that Singaporeans have better quality of life.
"Without growth we cannot take care of our people, without business, we cannot take care of our workers."
Around 85 per cent of MTU Asia's over 280 employees here are Singaporeans, as are nine in 10 of Rolls-Royce's overall 2,500 staff members here.
"It makes sense to grow our business in Singapore where some 40 per cent of the workforce has a technical qualification," said Mr Lawrie Haynes, president of Rolls-Royce's Land and Sea division.
He added that the Asia-Pacific region would be an area of growth in the years to come, with power consumption expected to increase by about 67% by 2035.
MTU Asia, which has operated in Singapore for 40 years, was fully acquired by Rolls-Royce last year and comes under the Power Systems unit of the Land and Sea division. Its key markets are in marine and naval, but energy is catching up, said Ms Doris Schlieszeit, MTU Asia's managing director.
She added that workers at the facility, which consolidates the company's application engineering, sales and service, distribution management, marketing and communications, would continue to have their skills upgraded as the products they make are very technical.
"The new facility must be manned by a skilled workforce...This is possible because we can draw from Singapore's pool of qualified and experienced workers," she said.
The Tukang complex also includes a new failure analysis centre, regional remanufacturing centre for engine components, and the knowledge hub for the company's complex engine products for military and naval sectors.
