Brunei a newcomer to global defence industry |
| Thursday, December 6, 2007 |
| |
|
WITH the steadily increasing numbers of defence exhibitions both regionally and internationally, the global defence industry will be provided with more opportunities to market their latest technologies and professional expertise.
"There are a number of reasons why a country wants to start up its own international defence exhibition, most of all pride and prestige, of course," revealed Stephen Barnard, publisher of the German-based international defence analyst magazine, Military Technology. "But the most important factor that draws defence companies to these defence exhibitions is that there has to be a real perception of market orders and sales."
Brunei Darussalam is set to host its second international defence exhibition in August 2009, the same time as the Moscow defence exhibition.
Closer to home, Singapore draws the biggest crowds and participation at its defence fair and the next Malaysian Lima airshow will be held just a few months after the sultanate's.
"I don't think that Brunei's hosting of another additional fixture to the international defence exhibition's annual calendar of events will pose much of a problem to defence companies, nor an economic threat to any of its neighbours yet," Barnard added.While 2009 Brunei Darussalam International Defence Exhibition (Bridex 2009) is expected to draw many delegates and participants, he reasoned that their involvement is "because, in some cases, they are obliged to participate by the host government, especially if they are new to it, just like Brunei."
He added: "Especially if they've been there the first time around and if they don't, then you'll have some time to improve on it and make better for the next one."
With Bridex 2009 being the sultanate's second attempt at hosting such an event, other countries have nothing to worry about.
"Bigger exhibitions like Singapore and Malaysia won't feel threatened, as they have been doing this for much longer," Barnard went on to add.
One of the reasons behind setting up Bridex was to provide local SMEs with opportunities to diversify their businesses and to capitalise on the potential of the nascent local defence industry.
But if Brunei was serious about wanting to help and encourage the latter, "then what is more important is having the right people with the right skills that can really do the job," the defence analyst commented.
"You have people in Malaysia and Singapore, learning and training on other high-value niche areas, such as IT and vehicle engineering, that they have managed to successfully transform their indigenous defence industries to produce equipment and solutions that are of international military quality, and that is the most important factor," he said. "Military specifications are sometimes even more rigorous and demanding, because they have to be, as most of the times, they revolve around things that explode."
But the underlying factor was that "no local defence industry can sustain itself for very long especially if it cannot be marketed overseas. And this is where producing equipment that measure up to international quality standards is very important."
Source: The Brunei Times
|
|
