Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 22, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Bigger players in the Malaysian automotive industry should consider procuring electronic components from local suppliers instead of relying on imports to help develop the supply chain industry, said an electrical and electronics (E&E) industry expert.

Considering the government’s aspiration of developing an electric vehicle for the country’s third national car project, he said prices offered by local suppliers within the E&E components sector are considered competitive.

“A lot of our local players in the electronic sector are already supplying to automotive providers all around the world. We just have to integrate these skills and work together as a country to build this capability,” Datuk Yoon Chon Leong, the director of non-profit organisation Penang Science Cluster, told reporters on the sidelines of an industry seminar here yesterday.

Meanwhile, Yoon said Malaysia should proceed with the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network technology roll-out, though he said it needs to carefully address privacy and security concerns.

He said agencies such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will have to take the lead in structuring rules and regulations to help protect data security under the 5G technology. MCMC has earlier completed its assessment of Huawei’s 5G network by this year for the government’s consideration on whether to disallow the Chinese telecoms giant from building its 5G network infrastructure in Malaysia.

Also present at the seminar was Dr Shariman Alwani, head of strategy, innovation and renewables at Sime Darby Plantation Bhd, who pointed out that the palm oil sector remains fundamentally strong but more focus should be placed on the greater adoption of mechanisation and automation to further improve productivity of both the big players and smallholders.

“The demand for palm is still there and our production continues to be strong. Fundamentally, the sector is still very strong.

“Right now, we are working through some structural issues in terms of inventories and pricing. Once all these structural issues are sorted out — partly by itself but also via government policies such as the biodiesel mandate — I think the outlook is strong for this year,” Shariman told reporters on the sidelines of an industry seminar here yesterday.

He, however, declined to make further comments on crude palm oil prices.

Shariman also acknowledged there has been stagnant growth in yields for the palm oil industry, both in Malaysia and in Indonesia, over the past 10 years, although he said that it was in most parts due to impact of adverse weather conditions.

“But it also means that there are opportunities for the industry to understand innovative actions to improve the yields — in particular by focusing on mechanisation, automation, digital innovation — to improve productivity of the industry not just for the big players, but also the smallholders who form a big component of the palm oil industry here and in Indonesia,” he said.

At yesterday’s close, the benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery was traded RM18 up at RM2,263 per tonne.

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