Malaysia
The original report was published in the USA Today on Thursday, April 12, 2012
 Naguib Bin Mohd Nor, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of SAM |
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Thinking globally, right from the start
Established only six years ago, Strand is pitching its hi-tech designs to a huge international market
Already considered a strong manufacturing country, Malaysia is stepping up and gaining a reputation as an engineering services hub too, thanks to companies like Strand Aerospace Malaysia (SAM). A member of the Strand Group of Companies, SAM is considered a ‘pure play’ engineering services provider, meaning that it employs people and computers for design and analysis rather than for labor-intensive manufacturing.
“We focused on delivering European standards of work from day one,” says COO of SAM Naguib Bin Mohd Nor, who worked in the U.K. prior to returning to Malaysia. “What differentiates SAM is its ability to design complex primary structures for companies like Airbus, using only purely Malaysian engineers working from Malaysia.”
Initially created in 2006 by the COO and four hand-selected local engineers, SAM now has 48 employees and expects to employ 160 by the end of 2012, capitalizing on the country’s vast pool of unutilized engineers. Around 20,000 engineering students graduate every year from Malaysian universities, in addition to another 2,000 Malaysians sent to study abroad.
As part of the government’s Economic Transformation Program (ETP), a total of RM177 million ($59 million) in private investment in training and development will help turn the country into a center for high-value engineering services.
“Invest in Malaysia and you’ll get the whole of Asia. It is really is as simple as that,” says Zainal Amanshah, CEO of InvestKL, a one-stop liaison helping promote SMEs’ export capabilities and multinational corporations identify business opportunities, especially in the Greater Kuala Lumpur area. “We can offer investors various customizable incentives, talent availability and upskilling of graduates, easy and cost-effective business, and a very pro-business government.”
A UNITED WORLD SUPPLEMENT PRODUCED BY:
Vincent Rifici, Idil Demirel, Scott Winnen, Ugo Bagration, Maggie Kay and Vanessa Massimini, with special thanks to Minister of Defence Dr. Hamid Zahidi, Mr. Serhat Ozalp and Mr. Shamsul Rizal
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  LOCATION:
Southeastern Asia, peninsula bordering Thailand and northern one-third of the island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia, Brunei, and the South China Sea, south of Vietnam
AREA:
total: 329,847 sq km
country comparison to the world: 67
land: 328,657 sq km
water: 1,190 sq km
AREA - comparative:
slightly larger than New Mexico
CLIMATE:
tropical; annual southwest (April to October) and northeast (October to February) monsoons
NATURAL RESOURCES:
tin, petroleum, timber, copper, iron ore, natural gas, bauxite
GEOGRAPHY - note:
strategic location along Strait of Malacca and southern South China Sea
RELIGIONS:
Muslim (or Islam - official) 60.4%, Buddhist 19.2%, Christian 9.1%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 2.6%, other or unknown 1.5%, none 0.8% (2000 census)
LANGUAGES:
Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan
POPULATION:
28,728,607 (July 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 43
GOVERNMENT TYPE:
constitutional monarchy
CAPITAL:
name: Kuala Lumpur
INDEPENDENCE:
31 August 1957 (from the UK)
AGRICULTURE - products:
Peninsular Malaysia - rubber, palm oil, cocoa, rice; Sabah - subsistence crops, coconuts, rice; rubber, timber; Sarawak - rubber, timber; pepper
INDUSTRIES:
Peninsular Malaysia - rubber and oil palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, medical technology, electronics, tin mining and smelting, logging, timber processing; Sabah - logging, petroleum production; Sarawak - agriculture processing, petroleum production and refining, logging
EXPORTS:
$210.3 billion (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 23
$163.2 billion (2009 est.)
IMPORTS:
$156.6 billion (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 28
$117.4 billion (2009 est.)
 
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