A unit of a Hong Kong-listed manufacturing company specialising in hygiene officially launched its new SEA Regional Hub, located in Bandar Bukit Raja, Selangor’s industrial township. The new RM700.5 million, state-of-the-art mega facility is located on a 30-acre site filled with greenery and comprises a double-storey manufacturing plant with raw material warehouse, an automated finished goods warehouse, a distribution centre, the firm’s Innovation Centre as well as a six-storey administration block.
This facility will predominantly cater to the Southeast Asian market while supporting sales to over 25 countries, with Malaysia being the strongest market. The hub will centralise expertise and high-value activities in Malaysia as well as make the group globally competitive by using the latest technologies and processes with automation used where possible.
The new facility will bring together the enabling technologies at every stage of the supply chain to further enhance effectiveness and increase efficiency and productivity while lowering costs. Concurrently, the firm will also work to upskill its workforce and vendors to meet the requirements of the new technologies, which would also benefit the whole ecosystem of the personal-hygiene industry in the country.
The Innovation Centre is equipped with full in-house capabilities with a broad set of experts for R&D, innovation, product and material development. Strict international standards are followed for product development, quality and product safety requirements. In all, these components encapsulate a state-of-the-art facility with the capability and efficiency of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is in line with the Government’s Industry4WRD policy.
The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) commended the company’s commitment to strengthening its presence with the new SEA Regional Hub. The MIDA Chief Executive Officer noted that using 4.0 technologies, features of environmentally friendly production as well as efficient monitoring and maintenance adoption will inevitably extend further modern techniques of production within the local industry value chain.
The President of the firm’s SEA group stated that the investment represents the company’s commitment to Malaysia and to the state of Selangor. The new Hub is expected to increase production capacity by 20% when another 20-acre site build-up is completed and fully in operation. In addition, the development of local talent remains a priority.
The firm’s presence in Malaysia represents the portfolio of European and Chinese investment participation, which have been among the top contributors to high-value-added investments in Malaysia. OpenGov Asia reported that Malaysia remains a top investment destination among global investors and a hub for business expansion. Investors continue to invest in Malaysia as the nation’s new leadership deepens its focus on strengthening the country’s economic growth and retaining Malaysia’s reputation as a stable investment destination.
The country attracted a total of RM193.7 billion (US$41.7 billion) worth of approved investments in the services, manufacturing and primary sectors involving 2,786 projects from January to September 2022 and is expected to create 98,414 job opportunities in the country. This is a 2.5% cent increase as compared to the RM188.9 billion (US$45.1 billion) investments approved in the same period last year.
The government is keen to ensure that country is well prepared to serve investors with infrastructure as well as local tech expertise. The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and Collaborative Research in Engineering and Science and Technology Centre (CREST) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a company that provides businesses and people with collaborative 3D virtual environments to imagine sustainable innovations.
The partnership aims to create a steering committee to discuss the scope, requirements, roles and plans in supporting Malaysia’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their transformation journey to Industry 4.0 as well as enhancing cloud-based collaboration through adopting world-class Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions.
