The Malaysia-Japan partnership to assist local manufacturing SMEs in adopting smart manufacturing technologies has entered its second phase, which includes business matching and the creation of Industry 4.0 showcases.
According to SIRIM Bhd and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Kuala Lumpur, the second phase was a joint online business-matching workshop conducted on March 25 to provide an online matching platform for both participating Japanese solution providers and local SMEs.
The workshop was attended by four Japanese solution providers, namely Hitachi Asia (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, KDDI Malaysia Sdn Bhd, NEC Corporation of Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and Mitsubishi Electric Sales Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
“17 local SMEs from various manufacturing industries joined the one-day workshop in which 28 one-to-one business-matching sessions were concluded and the local SMEs, which had applied and received respective Industry4WRD Readiness Assessment reports, have indicated interests in adopting Japanese technologies from the Japanese solution providers.
“For successfully matched showcases, the SMEs are eligible to apply for incentives granted by The Malaysian government under the Malaysian Investment Development Authority to adopt relevant Industry 4.0 technologies,” the statement by JETRO and Sirim said.
The workshop was attended by Hitachi Asia (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, KDDI Malaysia Sdn Bhd, NEC Corporation of Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and Mitsubishi Electric Sales Malaysia Sdn Bhd, according to the statement.
The third and final phase of the collaboration would involve business-matching events on larger scales and open to all Malaysian manufacturers, as well as Japanese solution providers.
“The government, through the Industry4WRD: National Policy on Industry 4.0 led by Ministry of International Trade and Industry, aims to drive the digital transformation of manufacturing and related services sectors in Malaysia,” both parties said.
Malaysia, through SIRIM Bhd, together with its Japan counterpart, JETRO Kuala Lumpur, has been collaborating to support the introduction of Japanese smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0-related technologies to local SMEs in the manufacturing sector since 2019.
The first phase of the collaboration, 10 business seminars were conducted from 2019 to 2020 on the introduction of Japanese Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing technologies featuring various Japanese solution providers, across the main states in Peninsula Malaysia. Show quoted text
