KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s aim to be a regional aerospace leader by 2030, churning RM55.2 billion annually, comes via more than 200 companies operating here.
It is expected to produce 32,000 high-income jobs.
Under the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020), the country aims to shift its economy from labour-intensive to high value-added, knowledge and innovation-based economic activities, focusing on the services and manufacturing sectors.
Aerospace and aviation industry players told the New Straits Times that there existed about 66 companies involved in maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities, 33 companies in aero-manufacturing, 25 in education and training, 11 in systems integration, engineering and design, and others in various support services.
They said that among the local industry players with original equipment manufacturing (OEM) capabilities, were SME Aerospace, CTRM Aero Composite, Airod Sdn Bhd, UMW Aerospace and SAM Engineering & Equipment (M) Berhad.
“These firms have demonstrated their capabilities to meet the stringent global reliability and quality assurance standards.
“Thus, they have been able to break in into the global aerospace supply chain,” said one of them.
Among the leading global aerospace players in Malaysia are Airbus, Spirit AeroSystems, Safran Landing Systems, Honeywell Aerospace Avionics, Singapore Aerospace Manufacturing, GE, UTC Aerospace Systems. GKN Aerospace, Senior Aerospace, Honeywell and General Electric.
The industry spokesman said that by 2030, the industry was projected to contribute revenues of RM20.4 billion for MRO, RM21.2 billion for aero-manufacturing, and RM13.6 billion for engineering and design services.
He said under the 11th Malaysia Plan, the government aimed to shift Malaysia’s economy from labour-intensive to high value-added, knowledge and innovation-based economic activities, focusing on the services and manufacturing sectors.
Another industry player said that the Ministry of International Trade and Industry's National Aerospace Industry Coordinating Office had established an occupational framework with Department of Skills Development.
“The idea is to develop talent for the aerospace industry.
“The framework will be a reference for the standards required for skills training, development and certification in line with industry requirements,” he said.
He added that attractive tax incentives were in place to encourage the growth and development of the aerospace industry.
One of the primary focuses was on surface engineering towards churning out complex and diverse products.
The National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Programme, administered by the USA-based Performance Review Institute, is learnt to oversee surface engineering processes, including certification and quality assurance.
He added that facilities like the UMW High Value Manufacturing Park in Serendah, Selangor and the KLIA Aeropolis in Sepang, Selangor augured well to develop local aerospace clusters.
On Thursday, Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Ignatius Darell Leiking made known that Malaysia was eyeing to become the leading aerospace nation in South East Asia by 2030, with a targeted annual revenue of RM55.2 billion.
He said that in 2017, the Malaysian aerospace industry recorded a RM13.5 billion revenue, with aerospace manufacturing contributing 48 per cent.
This, he added, had led to a surge in investments with some multinationals establishing and expanding operations across a growing network of aerospace facilities, accelerating the growth of the local supply chain.
The aerospace industry offered abundant opportunities for the transfer of advanced technologies in engineering, electronics, composite materials, system integration, MRO, and research and development.
Leiking revealed that Airbus and Boeing were forecasting more than 40,000 new aircraft were needed by 2037, with 16,000 for the Asia Pacific region.
He also said that Airbus predicted 35,000 planes for worldwide delivery over the next 20 years would cost US$5 trillion.
For the same period, Boeing predicted 41,000 planes worldwide for US$5 trillion.
Out of the total, 4,000 new aircraft are to be delivered to the South East Asia region by 2037.