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Posted: 31 Mar 2013 06:27 PM PDT

LANGKAWI: Malaysia's maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) industry revenue is projected to grow at 10% this year from about US$900mil (RM2.79bil) in 2012, serving as a key growth driver of the country's aerospace industry.

Frost & Sullivan (Asia Pacific) director Subhranshu Sekhar Das said fuel and maintenance cost took up about 50% of the operating cost of an airline.

"MRO expenses are difficult to control, while it is impossible to check fuel cost. This is why MRO expenditure will always be on the rise," he told StarBiz at the Asean Commercial Aviation Conference held at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (Lima) 2013.

(Business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan provides customer-dependent market research and analysis, growth strategy consulting, and corporate training services.)

Das said Malaysia currently was one of the top three countries in Asia Pacific for airlines to obtain MRO services, after Singapore and Hong Kong.

"Malaysia is known for its MRO services for engines and airframes, and modification of airframes. It has been able to stay competitive because it has an edge in human resources, which is still cheaper to source than elsewhere.

"Singapore's edge is that its shared aerospace facilities and infrastructure reduce the cost of operations," he said.

Das said the demand for engine services in the Asia-Pacific region was growing at 8.5% per annum, while services for airframes and airframe modification were increasing at 5.5% and 6.6% per annum respectively. The MRO industry revenue for the region is around US$15bil (RM46.5bil) per annum.

Frost & Sullivan global vice -president Chris De Lavigne said the growth of airline passengers in the Asia-Pacific region would also spur the growth of the aerospace industry in Malaysia.

While international routes and the full service carriers are impacted by the global slowdown, intra-Asian routes and low-cost carriers serving the region are growing.

"The high cost of fuel and competition from Middle Eastern airlines are some of the challenges that full service carriers have to face.

"As a result, we are seeing growth of passengers of airlines in Asia Pacific at 7%-8% per annum.

"More passengers means that airlines would order more aircraft, requiring more MRO services that would spur the MRO industries of Malaysia and the region," De Lavigne said.

The key MRO service companies in Malaysia are Malaysia Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Airod (Aircraft Inspection, Repair, & Overhaul Depot), Sepang Aviation Engineering, GE Engine Services Malaysia, Eurocopter Malaysia , Honeywell Aerospace Services, Hamilton Sundstrand Malaysia, Agusta Westland, Airfoil Services, and AAR Landing Gear Services.

Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) deputy chief executive officer Datuk Phang Ah Tong said the country's MRO had proven itself as a reliable pillar of support for the country's economy.

"The aerospace sector is still drawing investments into the country, despite the global slowdown, unlike the electronics segment.

"Products in the aerospace industry have a longer life cycle, unlike those in the consumer electronics sector where the life cycle gets shorter and shorter," he said.

Meanwhile, Honeywell Aerospace (Asia Pacific) president Briand Greer said the company would be putting a business leader in Malaysia in the next quarter to handle aerospace military and defence deals in the Asia-Pacific region.

"The market for aerospace military and defence in Asia Pacific is growing at 6% to 7% per annum. Malaysia is strategically located for us to use as a platform to tap into the aerospace industry for the region," he said.

At its 13-acre site in Seberang Prai, Greer said the manufacturing facility manufactured the control display system for the cockpit of aircraft.

"The product is called Primus Epic CDS/R and is used in a wide range of aircraft. One of its features is the ability to predict weather conditions 482 km away," he added.

Honeywell Aerospace's global revenue from the aerospace defence segment is about US$5bil (RM15.5bil) per annum, of which 25% are generated from the international market. Its aerospace business globally generates US$12bil (RM37.2bil) per annum.

UPECA Aerotech Sdn Bhd's recent RM763mil contract award from the US-based UTC Aerospace System would generate about RM50mil worth of jobs to the local supply chain over the next 10 years.

"We will also invest more than RM30mil over the next three years and increase our workforce to more than 100 personnel in Shah Alam," UPECA chief executive officer Simon Yew said.

UPECA chief operating officer Eugene Ang said the company would make fan cowl or the shell that housed the engine of an aircraft for UTC.

The contract awarded to UPECA at Lima 2013 is the company's biggest to date, covering all aspects of manufacturing, development, design, and fabrication of jigs and fixtures, procurement of raw material, machining, testing, treatment, and assembly of the machine components.

Jetline International (M) Sdn Bhd, a local jet aircraft component manufacturer, is also expanding its business in Malaysia, following the takeover of a RM1.1bil US-based jet manufacturing company in 2012.

Jetline will invest RM1bil in a manufacturing facility that will start initial production at Subang and move to Sepang at a later date.

The company aims to generate RM13bil in turnover for five years starting from 2016.

Meanwhile, Mida chief executive officer Datuk Noharuddin Nordin said it was in the advanced stages of negotiating with six big aerospace companies to invest in Malaysia.

"The companies are from the United States, Europe, UK and Japan. The multi-billion-ringgit investments would be in the area of manufacturing aero-structures and aero-components," he said.

This year Mida aimed to double the investment for the aerospace industry from 2012, Noharuddin said, adding: "Last year, we roped in about RM2.4bil for the aerospace industry in the country."

About RM920mil of the RM2.4bil comprises foreign investments.

International Trade and Industry (Miti) Deputy Minister Dauk Paduka Mukhriz Mahathir said recently the Federal Government was keen to develop Changlun in northern Kedah as an aerospace centre.

"There is presently an international joint-venture company making structures for commercial aircraft operating in Changlun," he added.

More than 40 companies have invested a total of RM3.2bil in the aerospace sector in Malaysia, of which 17 are in the MRO industry, 21 in manufacturing, and two in research and development and design.

We need numbers to set targets and measure achievement

Posted: 31 Mar 2013 06:25 PM PDT

I BELIEVE in numbers always have, always will. Properly used and measured they do not lie. And when you rely on them and interpret them correctly, you can separate the wheat from the chaff quite easily.

This is why we use numbers all the time in both government and economic transformation programmes. Yes, we argue qualitatively about what we want but we must have some way to translate it into numbers. Otherwise there is no measurable target and no measurable achievement there is no progress.

As those who have read this column before will know, we have a true north in our transformation programmes that is to achieve developed status by 2020. The target for that narrow as it may seem is to achieve a gross national income per capita of US$15,000 by 2020.

Yes, we are aware that development needs to be balanced, inclusive and sustainable but nevertheless we want to achieve that US$15,000 by 2020 along with our other goals.

But yes, there are other goals too if we want to achieve that major goal. And so we want to achieve those too so as to be able to meet our overall target. If we meet or exceed most of our sub-targets, then we are on target to achieve developed status.

As our Prime Minister pointed out eloquently when we launched our transformation annual reports recently, that overall we have achieved 108% of targets for government transformation and 118% of our targets for economic transformation.

What that means is we are on target to achieve developed status by 2020 and if achievements continue at the current pace, we could reach that by as early as 2018. This is not something plucked from the air it is what the figures show.

To round off some points in the annual reports for the transformation programmes, let me list down clearly and unambiguously 12 clear signs of success.

1. When the ETP roadmap was released in October 2010, the official gross national income (GNI) per capita for 2009 was US$6,700. Using this 2009 baseline, GNI per capita in US dollars has risen 49% in three years, a good measure by any standards. In early 2012, due to the adoption of the United Nation's System of National Accounts (SNA 2008) by many countries in the world, all our historical figures from 2005 onwards had to be changed. This explains why the 2009 GNI per capita was changed in 2012. No one in the Government did this to deliberately mislead anybody as alleged by some parties. As a general principle, in assessing performance against set key performance indicator (KPI), it is important not to change the goal post. That is why we kept to the baseline KPI of US$6,700 per capita in our ETP annual report. Even if we are to take the revised 2009 GNI per capita of US$7,059, the improvement of 41% is still very good.

Even if we take out the effects of US dollar appreciation, income shows a growth of an excellent 24% over the period. At this rate, we can achieve developed status by 2018.

2. Our targets for GNI, private investment and employment for last year have all been met. We, as a nation, employed an additional 438,800 people, 113% of target. Private investment at RM139.5bil, exceeded the target by 9% while GNI at RM903.8bil was 102% of target. The 2012 GNI per capita was US$9,970.

3. Our economic growth in 2012 was 5.6%, up from 5.1% for the previous year. This achievement was all the more remarkable because it happened during a global economic slowdown. Singapore for the same year grew just 1.3%, South Korea by 2%, Japan 1.9% and the United States 2.2%. The UK and the euro region contracted by 0.1% and 0.5% respectively. In comparison to countries in the upper-middle income bracket as per World Bank's classification, Malaysia also performed better than Russia (3.4%), Turkey (2.6%) and Mexico (3.8%), to name a few.

4. We have had two consecutive years of record government revenue. Last year it grew 12% to RM207bil, enabling us to carry out our various programmes to help the poor and carry out infrastructure projects.

5. We have made great strides in reducing the budget deficit from 6.6% of gross domestic product (GDP goods and services produced in a year) to 4.5% in 2012. The target for this year is 4% and we are on target to reduce it further to 3% by 2015 and a surplus by 2020.

6. Private investment growth has more than tripled since the start of economic transformation from a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% between 2005 and 2010, to 17% between 2011 and 2012. Last year, it grew 22% on top of a 12.2% growth in 2011 impressive numbers by any standards and important because of their impact on the economy in future years when production starts.

7. Private investments hit a record RM139.5bil last year, exceeding the targeted RM127.9bil and exceeding the previous year's RM94bil by a hefty 48%. That really is something.

8. The stock market hit a high of 1692.65 points on Jan 4, 2013. In terms of market capitalisation, it increased 30% or RM340bil to RM1.46 trillion as of that date from RM1.12 trillion in August 2010.

9. Trade increased to reach record highs in the past three years. It increased 8.7% to hit RM1.47 trillion in 2011 and increased again by 4.1% to RM1.53 trillion last year, despite difficult global conditions.

10. We have received international recognition. In 2012, our position in the World Bank ranking in terms of ease of doing business improved to 12 from 18. In AT Kearney's Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index our position improved to 10 from 21.

11. Let's look at how these have touched people's lives. Under the GTP, we have positively impacted the lives of many people. For example, under our Rural infrastructure NKRA, over the last three years, it is estimated that 4.3 million rural people have benefited. We built 3,349 km of rural roads (equivalent distance from Johor to Myanmar). Thousands of rural people benefited from our electrification, water and housing programme. We estimate that 2.8 million people have experienced the improved service of the new 37 KTM and 35 LRT trains, 470 new RapidKL buses, the free service of GoKL buses, the new terminal in Bandar Tasik Selatan and the refurbished Pudu Raya terminal and the 6,800 new parking bays within the KL rail network. Some 2.4 million students and teachers have benefited from our Education NKRA initiatives. Under the Low income household NKRA, 505,600 people has benefited, with 109,050 moving out of poverty. This is done purely on needs, regardless of race and ethnic background. When our minimum wage initiative reaches full implementation, it will lift the incomes of about 3.2 million people out of poverty. BR1M 1 and 2 have been received by over 4 million households. Since 2009, the average household income has increased from RM4,025 to RM5,000. Bumiputra incomes have increased by 6.9% to RM4,457, Chinese by 8% to RM6,366 and Indians by 9% to RM5,233.

12. It is clear that our transformation journey is going according to plan. As we continue to grow and transform the economy, government revenue rises. This allows the Government to spend on programmes to benefit the rakyat. This includes GTP and other initiatives. With a robust economy and healthy government revenue, we are able to pay the billions of money spent on providing subsidies, such as fuel, electricity, public medical health services, public transport, etc. This is evidence that a lot of things in the country are going right and we are progressing as a nation. Take heart that we have done well and believe we can do it. The figures show it, and, believe me, they don't lie.

Let me close with a quote from Alexander Graham Bell: "When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us".

Our Prime Minister has opened the transformation door for Malaysia and we have since been pursuing this journey. Let us all rejoice that there is hope for us a nation. If we all join hands, we can build it together into a great nation.

Datuk Seri Idris Jala is CEO of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department. All fair and reasonable comments are welcome at idrisjala@pemandu.gov.my

KLCI starts April on cautious note

Posted: 31 Mar 2013 06:19 PM PDT

Published: Monday April 1, 2013 MYT 9:20:00 AM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue chips slipped in early trade on Monday, kicking off the new month on April on a cautious note, with BAT, KL Kepong and IHH Healthcare among the decliners.

At 9.03am, the FBM KLCI fell 0.82 of a point to 1,670.81. There were 17.70 million shares traded valued at RM10.71mil. There were 59 gainers, 30 losers and 81 stocks unchanged.

BAT fell the most, down 94 sen to RM61.22 with 100 shares done. KL Kepong fell 24 sen to 24 sen to RM20.68, IHH was down four sen to RM3.70 and Tenaga two sen to RM7.20 and DiGi also two sen down to RM4.61.

Selangor state related counters KHSB fell 3.5 sen to 59 sen and KPS was down two sen to 99 sen.

Sapura Resources rose five sen to 72 sen after it declared a net special dividend of 5.0 sen per share translating to a net dividend yield of 7.5% based on its last done price of 67 sen.

Carlsberg was the top gainer, rising 14 sen to RM13.94 with 100 shares done. KLCCP also gained 14 sen to RM6.72 and UMW four sen to RM13.38.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 31 Mac 2013

The Star Online: Business

The Star Online: Business

Published: Monday April 1, 2013 MYT 9:20:00 AM

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