KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED) is exploring the possibility of bringing Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd into Malaysia to set up an aerospace entrepreneurship hub in the country.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Mohd Yusof said a meeting had been arranged with the two Japanese heavy-industry giants during his visit to Aeromart Nagoya 2019, a business convention for aerospace industry, from September 24-26, 2019.

The three-day event will be held in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, a major manufacturing centre for the aerospace industry in Japan.

"We are exploring the possibility of making Malaysia a hub for aerospace components by bringing in talents from companies like Mitsubishi or Kawasaki to Malaysia, if they are interested,” he said.

Mohd Redzuan was speaking to reporters after launching the "International Entrepreneurial Engagement: Malaysia Looking East, Japan 2019” programme at International Islamic University Malaysia here, today.

He said Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Makio Miyagawa was also made aware of the idea and the latter was very keen to see it converted into reality.

"So, from the meeting, we would look into issues like how well we could progress, what are the incentives that we can offer, what are the bureaucratic processes that we can overcome, as well as what are our common target markets in terms of supporting the aviation industry in Asia,” Mohd Redzuan said.

He said the ministry also encouraged Japanese investors to capitalise on Malaysia’s engineering capability, help upskill local automotive engineers to aerospace engineers, and enhance their collaboration with the local aerospace industry players.

"Currently, we already have some companies which manufacture aircraft parts and components for Airbus, Boeing and private jets,” he added.

On the mission to Nagoya, Mohd Redzuan said the delegation would include officials from MED’s units, as well as local aerospace industry players.  — Bernama