Italian Firms Become Biggest Players In Malaysia's Defence And Security Hub

By Joshua Foong FARNBOROUGH, England, July 13 (Bernama) -- Nine Italian firms expressed their firm commitment to the first defence and security hub in Asean, the Malaysian Defence and Security Technology Park in Sungkai, in northern state of Perak, Thursday. This comes after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the park's developer, Masterplan Consulting Sdn Bhd and companies owned by Finmeccanica conglomerate on investments and technological collaborations between Italy and Malaysia at the park. The MoU signatories include SELEX Sistemi Integrati, SELEX Galileo, AgustaWestland, Alenia Aermacchi, SELEX Elsag, Telespazio, SIIT Liguria Technological District and Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei. The collaboration areas are defence and security industries, with emphasis on research and development, manufacturing, maintenance, repair and overhaul and commercialisation. At the signing, the park was represented by its Masterplan Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Faris Abdul Halim and Vice-President (Business Development)Amal Aziz. The signing was witnessed by Malaysian Defence Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at the Farnborough Air Show here. The nine Italian firms has brought to 21 the total number of companies committed to invest in the park. "This is an encouraging sign for us as we are trying to secure our anchor tenants for the park in the first phase of our development," Ahmad Faris said. Ahmad Zahid, in his speech, said Malaysia wants to draw foreign defence players for domestic investment through the park. "With an estimated total gross development cost of about RM1.5 billion and a gross development value of about RM4.5 billion, the park has received good response from 400 companies worldwide having shown interest," he said. (US$1=RM3.19) The Malaysian Defence and Security Technology Park will be a premier defence technology park with advanced infrastructures and services to accelerate local human capital growth, research and development, science, technology and innovation for defence security and enforcement agencies. "Asean countries spent a total of RM87 billion last year. The figure is estimated to grow to around RM130 billion by 2016. The park's establishment will see to the tapping on the economic potential and will be a game changer for the defence industry in Malaysia," he added. An initial estimate RM1.4 billion gross development cost, the park will be equipped with modern infrastructures, utilities, transportation and logistics distribution channels as expected from any technology park development. It is envisaged to be a hub attracting local and foreign industry players to establish their presence in the country and subsequently benefit from the chained network. Reports said most major european defence companies expressed urgency at the air show in trying to reduce dependence on their home region as the euro zone debt crisis is seen as a threat to more cuts in military budget. With their fortunes at odds with sales growth currently enjoyed by commercial aerospace companies, there has been less of new armament deals announced in this year's edition of the air show despite the variety of exhibits on display. Meanwhile, SIIT Liguria Chief Executive Officer Dr Remo Pertica said Malaysia and Italy have been close partners with prominent business links of over 80 years. "We share good business relationships and feel that the time is right for us to make a greater commitment in support of this," he added. -- BERNAMA