Global defence, aerospace and security company, BAE Systems’ Vice President for Malaysia and Indonesia, Mark Burgess said all these factors have created an industrial ecosystem which was drawing foreign companies to seek investment and education opportunities in this part of the country.
“East Malaysia is very dynamic and ambitious and we can allow ourselves to think in the same way.
“We have high aspirations for this east Malaysian market because we can use this market to work with the rest of the region,” he told Bernama when met here yesterday.
Burgess is currently on a three-day visit to Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan to explore industrial and education opportunities the company could venture into.
According to Burgess, among the company’s focus in this part of Malaysia will be to work on empowering small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with the technology and know-how that BAE Systems could offer.
“What we’ve added to our industrial approach in Malaysia is that we are now more engaged with the SME community because there are some real capabilities out there, capabilities that we can make use of or the technology and know-how that we have that the SMEs can make use of,” he explained.
In the company’s experience in other countries where it also operates such as in the UK, US, India, Australia and Saudi Arabia, he said most SMEs required assistance in project management and accessing the global market, despite possessing certain strengths.
Burgess said BAE Systems had a long list of projects to discuss with the relevant authorities and explore the appropriate companies to work with.
“Some of the work we want to look into is to get some of the Malaysian industries involved in our global supply chain for requirements all over the world,” he added.
Burgess said Malaysia has been one of its most successful markets in Asia for over 20 years.
“But most of that can be attributed to the very strong and enduring ties between the UK and Malaysia in terms of strong defence relationship,” he said.
BAE Systems has supplied various naval vessels, aircrafts and vehicles currently in service with the Malaysian Armed Forces.
With a joint venture with Boustead Heavy Industry Corporation already in existence in Sabah in providing a maintenance facility for naval weapons, Burgess said BAE Systems was optimistic on broadening its industrial reach to this part of Malaysia.
He also said Malaysia was already in a strategic location within the South East Asian region, but has become increasingly strategic, being a crossroad between the Indian subcontinent, north and south Asia as well as Australasia.
Hope that BAE system will consider investing in Sabah and see which companies are appropriate to work with on their projects. This can give our local companies more opportunities.
ReplyDeleteDatuk Musa Aman also claimed that many foreign companies chose to invest in Sabah because of the political stability among other reasons.
ReplyDeletesebab itu sejak kebelakangan ini, banyak pelabur2 luar yang berminat untuk melabur di negeri ini..
ReplyDeletesaya harap lebih ramai pelabur2 asing yang melihat potensi Sabah selepas ini.. dan saya harap juga rakyat di negeri ini dapat menerima baik sebarang projek samada dipihak kerajaan mahupun pelabur2 asing..
ReplyDelete