COUNTRY FOCUS
A NEW VISION
The 10th Malaysia Plan and Economic Transformation Programme has brought a signifi cant boost country’s major sectors, writes Janet Tibble
W
ith a recent visit by Prime Minister David Cameron, Malaysia is a country offering vast high-value
opportunities that UK businesses should be eyeing for expansion and growth. The Malaysian government has an ambitious plan to elevate the country to ‘developed nation status’ by 2020. Its development goals encompass all major sectors, which has created huge opportunities in rail, planning and construction, education and oil and gas, where UK companies are already highly successful.
FULL SPEED AHEAD A mainstay of the government’s Vision for Malaysia centres around major railway developments. Work on the £10.5bn Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project is going apace. There will be two northeast- southwest radial lines and one circle line that will form a ‘wheel and spoke’ around Greater Kuala Lumpur, an area of more than 7m people. Due to be operational in January 2017, the system will cover 51km (9.5km underground), with 31 stations, 24 of them elevated and the rest underground. A number of UK contractors have
secured work on the fi rst line from Sungai Buloh to Kajang, construction of which began last November. UK companies have been bidding to secure elements of the project in terms of track, power, systems, signalling, engineering design, line alignment and offering expertise to major local contractors in tunnelling,
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www.ukti.gov.uk
which is complex due to the line’s central location. “UK companies are designing some of the elevated stations in the Klang Valley project,” says Andrew Hinton, UK Trade & Investment’s business specialist for high-value opportunities. “We hope that UK consultant engineers and contractors will become more involved with local partners in the delivery of line two, a circle line around Kuala Lumpur, which will be even more challenging because more of it will be underground. “Alongside the rail opportunities, there
is also scope for urban development. A UK company is checking drawings for a local architectural design consultancy, for example, and we are hoping that further UK ministerial support and engagement will enable us to increase our involvement.” Last year, a UK-Malaysia Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) was signed by Business Secretary Vince Cable and the chief executive offi cer of Malaysia’s Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD). “The MOU is not just a piece of paper,” says Hinton. “We are actively engaged in working with Malaysians to collaborate in mass-transport projects and representatives of SPAD are due to visit the UK soon.”
In addition, a feasibility study is being carried out into a high-speed line from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru and Singapore, worth £10-12bn. There are plans to double the track from Gemas to Johor Bahru and, eventually, to build a metro network for this southern city.
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