Malaysia, Italy seek stronger ties in aerospace
27 Jan 2021
Malaysia and Italy are expected to have a closer collaboration through the Malaysia Space Agency in developing the aerospace sector, in line with the country’s aim of becoming an aerospace hub by 2030.
“The International Space forum, which is a forum at the ministerial level, with the Italian Space Agency is organising together with the International Astronautical organisation, which will be hosted by the Malaysian Space Agency,” Ambassador of Italy to Malaysia Cristiano Maggipinto (picture) said.
Maggipinto also announced that there would be a high-level dialogue on Asean-Italy economic relations, to be jointly organised between the Italy-Asean Association and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority.
“There are a lot of activities and initiatives that we are promoting and we hope to finalise this year, which are a testament to the fact that the relations between our two countries are increasing,” he added.
“It is for us, a very good occasion also to strengthen the ties not only with Asean in general, but with Malaysia in particular in order to give a new depth to the relation between Italy and Malaysia,” he explained.
Malaysia, he said, is also becoming an attractive destination for Italian expats and firms.
“Malaysia has a good level of infrastructure because the quality of life and the cost of living is very good. The workforce is skilled and not expensive and Malaysians are able to speak several languages,” he said.
Maggipinto noted that there are strong similarities between the two countries in which both are characterised by the high number of small and medium enterprises.
Meanwhile, CIMB Asean Research Institute chairman and Asean Business Club president Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid said it is time to leverage Italian’s expertise especially in industrial robots and the IR4.0 adoption.
In Europe, Italy is also the second-largest manufacturer after Germany. Hence, the country has a strong industrial base and awareness and use of digitalisation. It also has 5,400 high technology manufacturing companies.
“In terms of robotics, Italy is in seventh place in the world with 20,000 robots manufacturing, the second in the European Union with high robotic industry and robotic intensity in industrial production.
“It is the sixth worldwide in terms of machine-to-machine communication, real-time exchange of data within the network of system machines, sensors and industrial robots,” Munir said.
Source: The Malaysian Reserve
