Malaysia aims to develop 30 new aerospace manufacturing SMEs

KUALA LUMPUR: The government targets to develop 30 new manufacturing small and medium enterprise (SME) players in the aerospace sector by 2020, in addition to the current 20 companies.

National Aerospace Industry Coordinating Office (NAICO) head Shamsul Kamar Abu Samah said the local aerospace industry's manufacturing segment had shown tremendous growth since the 1990s and recently surpassed the maintenance, repairs and overhaul (MRO) segment as the top revenue contributor in the aerospace sector.

“Of course, the MRO sector has been providing quite a sum of revenue to Malaysia but at this point of time, manufacturing (segment) is number one. We hope that it (manufacturing) can increase between 7% and 15% every year, but this will very much depends on how we can bring in more investments.

Shamsul Kamar said about 48% or RM6.6bil of the aerospace industry's revenue in 2017 came from the aerospace manufacturing segment, followed by 46% from the MRO segment and the remaining from the engineering and design services segment.

He said US-based General Electric's decision to invest RM200mil to set up a new hightech Leap service centre in Malaysia would result in up to 40 new airlines servicing their engines in Subang airport.

“We hope with the new investment, more engines will be serviced in Subang,” Shamsul told reporters after the launch of the third Kuala Lumpur International Aerospace Business Convention (KLIABC). — Bernama