Examination of Witnesses (Questions 714
- 719)
MONDAY 10 MAY 2004
PROFESSOR MOHAMMED
WAHAB
Q714 Chairman: Welcome to the Committee,
Professor. For the benefit of the record, can you introduce yourself?
Professor Wahab: My name is Mohammed
Wahab and I am Managing Director of DELTA Microelectronics Ltd.,
a small European company, fully owned by an organisation called
DELTA, Danish Electronic Light and Testing, and I am also Professor
of Electrical Engineering at the University of Glamorgan. I am
still working for the University of Glamorgan, which likes to
keep me on a sabbatical for a number of years. I have been out
for just over two years on sabbatical leave, providing this small
inward investment.
Q715 Albert Owen: Can you explain
to the Committee the main functions of DELTA Microelectronics
in Wales?
Professor Wahab: In Wales, it
represents one division of the DELTA organisation, which I would
like to tell you a little bit about because it is quite interesting.
I remember when DELTA Microelectronics was launched about two
years ago, we had the First Minister attending the launch, and
he was amazed that DELTA does not generate any profit. All of
its profit is put back into the company because it does not have
any shareholders. That was quite a surprise. DELTA itself emerged
from the amalgamation of a number of public laboratories. Its
history goes back to 1942. Over the years, and especially after
the war, and with the benefit of programmes similar to the Marshall
Plan, they received a lot of funding and it grew up under the
name DELTA, with five major divisions covering electronic testing,
software, light and optics, acoustics and microelectronics. DELTA
Microelectronics in the UK is basically a subsidiary of the microelectronics
division. Its main activities are concerned with the development
of microelectronic solutions, basically custom chips and integration
of sensors and custom chips for any customer who needs it. We
are part of the supply chain and provide, develop and supply chips
to any industry, from consumer to telecom to medical. DELTA looked
at the market in Europe and found that, surprisingly, 40% of the
activities in this field are in the UK, so it required some kind
of entity in the UK to look after its interests, primarily for
sales and marketing but also partly moving design activities into
the UK to be able to look after customers. Obviously, Denmark
is not very far and customers feel much happier when they can
see the front-end designers there. At the moment, we are very
small. We have not recruited our designers yet but we are in this
process, trying to establish DELTA's position here. There has
been business for DELTA in the past in the UK but the name is
becoming familiar. I guess your next question is, why Wales? Do
you want me to tell you, because it is always a mystery? It is
simple. A lot of business decisions are not only made on economics.
To come to the UK is an economic decision because the market is
there, but to come to Wales was really knowledge of and interaction
with individuals, people. I have personally worked with DELTA
over a number of years within a major European project, which
I put in my submission. FUSE is one of Europe's most ambitious
technology transfer programmes. That interaction over a number
of years led me to believe that there is a great deal they can
get in Wales. They visited Wales and interacted with Welsh companies,
and they felt that positioning themselves in Wales would be an
advantage rather than a disadvantage. They see it as a good entrance
into the UK market. I believe the role of individuals is very
strong sometimes in attracting inward investment in companies,
and the experience of DELTA proves that.
Q716 Albert Owen: What proportion
of your work is research and development?
Professor Wahab: I can say that
almost all of it is research and development because we provide
solutions to people who want to make new products. We design a
custom chip, and we are involved with research as well as with
all development. To find a best solution for an intelligence sensor
requires research and development. We do not sell our own products.
We provide a service to companies and supply them with components
that they sell themselves or integrate into their own products.
Q717 Albert Owen: You do research
for the larger DELTA company in the UK—for them as well.
Professor Wahab: The company is
based in Denmark. We are the only UK presence they have. But for
all the UK customers we find solutions, and part of the work goes
back to Denmark to be done there, because there are 300 people
in Denmark and only three of us here.
Q718 Albert Owen: How easy is it
to get qualified staff to your company, and does your position
within Wales hinder or help you?
Professor Wahab: At the moment
we do not have a problem because we are not large-scale, but I
think there is a shortage of qualified staff, especially when
it comes to staff who are capable of designing silicon chips,
and those people command a premium. Having said that, I have noticed
in the last couple of years there is interest from staff with
a Welsh background to come back to Wales. Those people went out
into the wider world and have experience of working in companies
in similar areas in Bracknell, Reading and around London, and
they have found that the quality of life is not as good as in
Wales and are willing to come back. There is a lot to be done
to attract staff into Wales—not those who know about Wales.
We do not enough to advertise the benefits of working in Wales—the
quality of life and the cost, because at the end of the day I
do not believe we should restrict our improvement to people who
are already here. One of the fundamentals of innovation is the
movement of knowledge and ideas, and that can only happen if people
come from different parts of the world, or at least from our neighbouring
regions. They bring new ideas and develop innovative products
and processes.
Q719 Dr Francis: Moving to links
with universities, you have already described your link with Glamorgan.
Do you have any other links with other universities in Wales?
Professor Wahab: We do have discussions
with other universities. For instance, we are working closely
with the Porritt Centre in Swansea. They have an interest in moving
more to the commercial side to areas where they are close to the
products, and they are consulting us on that. We were even discussing
the potential for them to help one of our agency customers. Glamorgan
is in a different situation because I have been with Glamorgan
for the last 16 years. I established their centre for electronic
product engineering so my relationship with Glamorgan is very
organic. I do not think it is like any other relationship. Apart
from that, we have fewer links with other universities. They are
not as strong as we would like them to be. In the future as projects
materialise in the UK, we would like to get involved. I firmly
believe universities have a major role to play. They are not playing
it at the moment but they could get more and more involved at
the product end of the R&D cycle.
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