KUALA LUMPUR: The proposed new railway industrial park, to be based in Rawang, is set to be an export hub for rail products and talents in the region in line with the growing rail industry there.
Malaysian Rail Industry Consortium (MARIC) president Datuk Dr Mohd Yusoff Sulaiman said the park will boost industrial exports, especially in the rail sector.
"The cluster-based park will involve infrastructure sharing as well as cooperation between companies as it would be a good way to develop the industry further, creating a platform for exports.
"It gives us the visibility to show the global market how serious and competent Malaysia's railway industry is.
"This allows us to export our products and services to the region that is currently developing rail projects. We will be able to to capture that," he said in an interview recently.
In March this year, MARIC has announced plans to create a railway industrial park in Malaysia, an initiative to step towards streamlining a centralised industrial ecosystem that is being seriously addressed by the government.
Yusoff said the proposal, which is set out in the consortium-led National Rail Initiative (NRI), is currently being streamlined and expected to be realised by the second quarter of this year.
He said the proposal has been presented to the International Trade and Industry (MITI) minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and MARIC expects it to be submitted to the Economic Council, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, soon.
Further, Yusoff said like other special economic zones such as Digital Free Trade Zone, Malaysian Vision Valley and Iskandar Malaysia, the railway industrial park, once realised, is also expected to draw investments.
The park is an initiative to step towards streamlining a centralised industrial ecosystem that is being seriously addressed by the government.
Yusoff said the park will also be a good way to create more skilled workforce in the sector.
"We see our workforce now of about 4,500 to 5,000 people working on the system works. Infrastructure would also require different sets of talent.
"So the park is where we should create a pool of skilled workforce that would be ready to future mega projects.
"Local expertise will boosted to a higher level, to be exportable in the region," he said.
An industry player CMC Engineering chief executive officer Hazwan Alif Abdul Rahman said the initiative will benefit CMC and the rest of local players, as it will be a platform for collaboration between the companies to optimise and share resources - knowledge, labour and financials).
"At the same time, as this is supported by the government via MIDA, we hope to be supported financially for new research and development for solutions, which shall be developed for domestic and export markets," he said.
He said such proper facilities will also give confidence to technology partners such as Alstom and Siemens.