Malaysia’s position as the third largest solar panel exporter globally has attracted the attention of many foreign manufacturers wanting to set up plants in the country.
Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said about six foreign manufacturers had established plants with several more to come.
“Currently, we have the Americans, Germans and Japanese. There are several foreign companies that are keen to invest here and we are still in the process of evaluating their proposals.
“With the positive environment in the industry, I think we might be able to catch up with the first and second solar panel exporters in the future,” he told reporters after witnessing two agreement signing by AWC Bhd here Tuesday.
Mukhriz said corporate sectors in Brunei are so impressed with Malaysia’s capacity to do solar panel fabrication and was very keen to bring this technology to their country.
“Brunei is also already looking into energy consumption. They think solar panel is the way to achieve that and we have the capability to help them achieve the target,” he said.
The agreement signing is for the acquisition of 70 per cent stake in Resource Data Management Asia Sdn Bhd (RDM Asia) and a collaboration agreement, between RDM Asia and Resource Data Management Ltd (RDM Ltd) for the development, marketing and distribution of RDM’s award-winning products in Malaysia and the Asian region.
RDM Ltd, a green technology company based in Glasgow, Scotland, is a specialist in the design and manufacture of electronic control systems that provide world-class temperature management assurance and flexible building automation for a wide variety of industries.
Speaking at the signing, Mukhriz said the collaboration would provide AWC the edge to move ahead in the industry that required advanced technology to cut down operating costs via intelligent energy usage.
AWC Group chief executive and managing director Azmir Merican said the market for RDM products in Malaysia was estimated at RM100 million but the potential market in the Asian region was substantially higher.
“The growth here should be as good as how it has been in Europe, where RDM products are used extensively in the supermarket sector and in other industries as well,” he added.
