As Craig Barrett continued to leave a trail of technology investments behind during his trip to Asia, Intel announced that it plans to spend $375 million on a test and assembly plant in Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

Construction will start on this, Intel's second packaging facility in China, in the second half of 2004 and the facility should open in 2005. It will employ about 675 people.

With the Asia-Pacific region accounting for roughly 40% of Intel's global sales, CEO Barrett who has been touring Asia this week, has left a string of investments in each country, including plans to open a high-level system design center in Taiwan, which will focus on communications products, an investment of $40 million in a design center in Malaysia's Penang, and a further investment of $100 million in other Malaysia-based R&D.