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The Malaysian economy registered a 7.2% GDP growth in 2010, largely contributed by the services and manufacturing sectors, which grew by 6.8% and 11.4%, respectively. Malaysia’s total Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) also hit a high of US$15.6 billion (RM47.2 billion) in same year, mainly in the manufacturing sector with a total of 910 approved projects.

Malaysia’s fundamentals are still strong, with analysts saying that a growth of 6% is achievable. This augurs well with the nation aspiring to become a high income economy by 2020. To achieve this, there has to be the unleashing of productivity-led growth and innovation, especially in the manufacturing sector, which will continue to receive a lot of attention under the Third Industrial Master Plan (IMP3, 2006-2020).

Compared to other more advanced and industrialised countries, Malaysia is able to produce high quality products at lower cost. This is because its workers are a high-skilled and knowledgeable workforce, capable of running high technology production facilities.

Under the IMP3, the machinery and equipment (M&E) industry has been earmarked to be one of the key areas for growth and development.

Globally, the M&E industry is continuously being driven by technological advances, process specialization and customer requirements for shorter throughput times, faster delivery and lower costs. The M&E manufacturers, like their counterparts in industrialised countries, are leveraging upon their strengths in core activities, such as Research & Development (R&D), software development, system integration, assembly, testing and calibration while focusing on quality of production. 

Besides, the M&E, the Government has also identified 12 target growth industries in the manufacturing sector for further development and promotion. Some of these which include Medical Devices, Metals, Pharmaceuticals, Petrochemicals, Rubber-based and Food Processing, will require some form of process control, automation and measuring instruments in the manufacturing plants. With this, the opportunities are enormous and the potential largely untapped.

Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas), for example, recently announced that it has set aside RM250 billion in capital expenditure (capex) over the next five years. A big chunk of it will benefit the process control and automation sector as Petronas continues to expand and boost the efficiency of its operations.

Malaysia cannot continue to compete with the other low cost producing nations in the region. The country is forging ahead from being a low cost producing country, to become a nation manufacturing high value-added and high technology M&E which will help manufacturers to be globally competitive and also to meet international standards such as the ISO9000 series. To succeed, manufacturers need to install accurate and reliable instruments and process automation to improve their productivity and quality.

With the entry of AFTA in 2006, the competition has forced Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) to think in terms of the global market. In order to stay competitive, these enterprises would have to continuously upgrade their production facilities.

FUNDING - The government has also recently launched a Business Growth Fund worth RM150 million to finance the commercialisation of high technology companies. This is the only way that Malaysian companies can remain globally competitive by investing heavily into sophisticated process control and automation systems. The time is now or never!

1. The high profile that the ICA 2012 enjoys is something that cannot be disputed. Since its inception in 1992, ICA has proven itself to be a highly successful event, which attracts key decision makers from the manufacturing and service industries.
2. It’s a one-of-its-kind event that highly focused on instrumentation, control and automation technology will attract end-users, the people you really want to show your solutions to.
3. A perfect biennial promotional platform to market your solutions and reinforce your leading position or to make a major inroad into this huge and growing market.
4. It’s a perfectly timed event to ride on the growth path of the country’s GDP.

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