Kuala Lumpur, Feb 21 – In conjunction with the ASEAN-Korean Centre (AKC) investment and market survey mission to Malaysia, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) collaborated with AKC to organise a Seminar on Business Opportunities in Malaysia’s Smart Manufacturing, today.
“Being open to new technologies and practices is a key competitive differentiator in efforts to overcome the many challenges faced by today’s businesses. Smart Manufacturing, a term coined as one of the phenomena of future manufacturing, is the way forward for industries in Malaysia. It covers the whole spectrum of the value chain starting from equipment builders to service providers and manufacturers. With the rise of emerging markets and new technologies, there are now more exciting opportunities,” says Datuk Azman Mahmud, Chief Executive Officer of MIDA.
Azman highlights that through the event, MIDA looks forward to having more collaborations between both Malaysia’s and Korea’s business communities – particularly in the areas of smart manufacturing. The event successfully gathered 90 local stakeholders to raise the awareness and interest to the possibilities and opportunities with Korean companies in automation and smart manufacturing.
“Although there are more than 35 local system integrators and engineering supporting companies in Malaysia that can provide integrated automated solutions for industries such as ACM, Kobay Technologies, and VisDynamics, we would like to also encourage the manufactures in the country to cooperate with Korean system integrators and manufacturers related to smart manufacturing,” he adds.
As at 2015, a total of 347 manufacturing projects with participation from Korea were implemented with total investments of USD4.7 billion (RM14.7 billion). These investments have created 50,145 employment opportunities to the country. Major Korean companies that have made Malaysia a part of their strategic location for investments include, Lotte Chemical Titan Malaysia, Samsung, Hanwha Q-Cells and POSCO Kiswire.
For the first nine months of last year, MIDA has approved an additional 5 manufacturing projects with Korean participation with investments amounting to USD369 million (RM1.53 billion) in the electronics and electrical (E&E), petroleum products including petrochemicals, and wood products industries. These projects are expected to generate 290 job opportunities.