PUTRAJAYA, May 18 (Bernama) -- Western Digital (WD) Corporation is to further expand its research and development and manufacturing activities in Malaysia which involves US$1.2 billion investment over the next five years.

WD President and Chief Executive Officer Datuk John F. Coyne informed Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak of the company's decision in a meeting with the prime minister at the Prime Minister's Office here Tuesday.

Western Digital's decision to have the project in Malaysia was made following discussions with Najib during the prime minister's working visit to Washington last month.

WD chose Malaysia for this latest expansion following the success of its operations here over the last 38 years, said the prime minister's office in a statement Tuesday.

The new investment will involve the construction of a new 1.5 million square foot multi-storey building for research and development and manufacture of magnetic head and media components and hard disk drives.

Construction is slated for completion by the third quarter of next year and the facility will be ramped to full capacity over the following five years.

There will be up to 10,000 additional jobs which involves a substantial number of high qualification jobs, 100 PhD holders, 1,000 degree holders, 3,000 diploma and certificate holders created at the facility over time, said the statement.

This was in line with the New Economic Model goals to create high wage jobs, it said.

Western Digital is a global leader in the development and manufacture of hard drives and solid state drives for internal, external, portable and shared storage applications.

The hard drives are used in desktop, notebook computers, mobile devices, corporate networks and home entertainment equipment while its solid-state drives are used in embedded applications such as network communications, industrial, medical, military and aerospace markets.

The company, which celebrates its 49th anniversary this year, has had a presence in Malaysia since 1972, with a cumulative investment todate of US$2.5 billion and current employment in excess of 19,000 here.

-- BERNAMA