Continental opens its third R&D building in Singapore

Singapore

TECHNOLOGY company and automotive supplier Continental has opened its third research and development (R&D) building in Singapore with the goal of meeting the demand of growing engineering capacities driven by the worldwide business expansion, particularly in Asia.

This expansion also looks set to improve employment figures with Continental seeking to hire more than 500 new employees with future-ready skillsets.

"Our target is to grow to more than 2,000 employees within the next five years," added Lo Kien Foh, managing director of Continental Automative Singapore Pte Ltd."The rapid development of the automotive industry necessitates having sufficient talent, with the expertise to meet Continental's customers, most of which are international automotive leaders."

This was further echoed by Helmut Matschi, member of the Continental executive board and head of the Interior division, who added: "We will be hiring more engineers with the relevant competencies and knowledge to ride the growth and demand for new technologies in the industry."

Consisting of seven storeys with a floor space of approximately 11,000 square metres, the new building is one of the three largest Continental R&D centres in Asia.

It has also become one of the largest private R&D facilities in Singapore and plans to host employees from the company's interior division and transmission business unit from its powertrain division.

"The opening of our third R&D site in Singapore attests to our confidence in, and commitment to, Singapore as a strategic location to expand our research and development centers in Asia," said Mr Matschi.

According to Lim Kok Kiang, assistant managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, the company's latest building will "introduce new focus areas such as intelligent mobility and mobility services, given the burgeoning interest in urban mobility".

With the new centre being designed with people in mind, innovative, inclusive, future-ready features have been incorporated to improve the working environment. These features include hydraulically adjustable workstations, sound-proof booths for teleconferencing and small discussion pods.

It will also have a talent pool of more than 20 nationalities to add to its diversity.