Monday, July 2, 2012

BAE Systems seeks more partners

Source From (Business times): http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/BAEE/Article/

Published: on 02 July 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: Global defence, security and aerospace company BAE Systems is looking at expanding its relationship with Malaysian partners and doubling its efforts to engage with more small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Its managing director for Southeast Asia, John Brosnan, said having established Kuala Lumpur as its Southeast Asian hub since moving from Singapore last year, BAE Systems was now looking beyond Klang Valley to strengthen its presence.

"We are here for the long term. We went to Sabah and Sarawak, east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and Johor, again trying to find potential partners. It's a continuous engagement," Brosnan said.

He said the British company was doubling its efforts to find new business partners, especially SMEs.

BAE Systems has had a presence in Malaysia for over 20 years. The company is currently involved in more than a dozen partnerships and joint ventures with local companies such as Composites Technology Research Malaysia Systems Integration Sdn Bhd (CTRM), Boustead Heavy Industries Corp and BHIC Bofors Asia Sdn Bhd.

"Malaysia has been a pretty good experience for us. CTRM is an example. We played a small part to what the company is today - from a handful of people working to thousands now," Brosnan said.

He said BAE Systems found a lot of small companies with big aspirations that were well-managed with good capabilities in Malaysia.

"We need companies that have agility, creativity and innovation. Those are the qualities we found here," Brosnan said.

"We want to be part of the industries here and understand economic priorities of these places," he said.

Brosnan said although BAE Systems was mainly a defence company, its investment track record was not only in defence industry but also in areas such as human capital and education.

He said one of the areas the company was looking at was cybersecurity. Bernama

No comments: