MALAYSIA must aspire to be a global champion in the drone industry as it possesses all the ingredients to prevail in the industry.
This ranges from technology and talent to emerging as a hub and other future potentials, according to founder and group CEO of Aerodyne Group Kamarul A. Muhamed.
According to Kamarul, the drone services market is an exciting market to be in given it is expected to be worth US$100 bil over the next five years – or a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50% – while the big drone or urban air mobility market is valued at US$500 bil.
“If we put enough focus, Malaysia has potential to be a market leader not only regionally but at global level,” he told FocusM.
“This is very much in line with the digital aspiration prescribed under the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL).”
Kamarul who was named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 was commenting on a view by Senior Minister-cum-International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali that Malaysia has potential to excel in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones.
According to Azmin, the country does not face lack of local talents in this area.
In this regard, he was full of praises for home-grown Aerodyne which has offices in 23 countries to provide inspection services for wind turbines in Europe and to the grid infrastructure of Tenaga Nasional Bhd.
“They are the No 2 in global rankings today and we look forward to them achieving ‘unicorn’ status,” Azmin pointed out when addressing an Airbus Malaysia Connect webinar today.
“Definitely, we want to develop an ecosystem that is not limited to UAVs and drones, but also vertical or short take-off and landing (VTOLs) and autonomous flying objects for the local and export markets. That is the future we are keen to capitalise on.”
Aerodyne is ranked second in the world by Drone Industry Insights (DII) in its “Drone Service Provider Ranking 2020”; was named Frost & Sullivan’s ‘Asia Pacific UAV Services Company of 2019’; and is a recipient of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Malaysia’s “Industry Excellence Gold Award 2019”.
Moving forward, Kamarul stressed on the need to overcome two vital challenges – (i) to find serious investors who are prepared to give the country the financial boost to become a global champion and (ii) having ample talent pool to improve ecosystem and to provide the much needed synergy to grow astronomically.
“We are happy to note that the Government has faith in our industry by virtue of having various agencies promoting the drone sector,”
“They (the Government) have also helped with regulatory constraint (sandbox) for product testing … the next step is to focus on the big picture by thinking beyond the Malaysia shores and the region so that Malaysia can be a global champion,” added Kamarul.
A DT3 (Drone Tech, Data Tech, and Digital Transformation) solutions provider of drone-based enterprise solutions, the Aerodyne Group is a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence as an enabling technology for large-scale data operations, analytics and process optimisation.
Aerodyne employs over 400 drone professionals to operate on an unprecedented level in the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) services sector, having managed more than 350,000 infrastructure assets with 110,000 flight operations and surveyed over 100,000 km of power infrastructure across 35 countries globally.– April 22, 2021
