Gamuda aims high

KUALA LUMPUR: Gamuda Bhd is targeting a RM10bil order book for its financial year ending July 31, 2022 (FY22), about half of which will come from the Penang South Islands reclamation project and the rest from Australia, according to Gamuda Engineering Sdn Bhd managing director Justin Chin.

“Moving forward, we are actively bidding for a number of projects in Australia and are targeting an order book of A$5bil to A$6bil (RM15.07bil to RM18.08bil) in the next three years or so.

“This is reasonable given the strength of Australia’s announced project pipeline of over A$100bil (RM301.32bil) in infrastructure development over the next decade,” said Chin at an online media session.

He said the group was not able to disclose details about its projects in Australia due to strict requirements in the property market.

“We are awaiting the results of two tenders and they should be out in the next one or two quarters. Within 2022, we are targeting three or four new tenders in Australia.”

Gamuda workers being trained in tunnelling

Chin added that the group is looking to expand its current base of ongoing projects secured in the last few years in Taiwan and Singapore.

“It should hopefully be an encouraging few years as governments in the region are looking at infrastructure spending to lead post-pandemic economic recovery and, hopefully, we will be able to capitalise on these opportunities,” he said.

Chin pointed out that Gamuda has a construction order book of RM4.5bil, which should keep the group busy over the next two years.

“In the short term, our focus will be on replenishing the order book in a few target markets.”

Regarding the Mass Rapid Transit Line 3 (MRT3), Chin said the group is awaiting the government’s decision. “Hopefully (the results will come) in the coming few months.”

As for the prosperity tax, he said a few companies within the group would be subjected to the one-off tax next year.

“For our overseas earnings, tax will only be imposed on foreign earnings that we remit back into Malaysia.

“And as our group’s foreign earnings will be reinvested in overseas markets such as Vietnam and Australia, we will not be subject to this tax in the foreseeable future,” said Chin.

Gamuda logo bldg

Gamuda group managing director Datuk Lin Yun Ling said Malaysia needs to have a clear roadmap for the next 10 years to tackle climate change, decarbonise electricity and start a carbon emission trading system.

Lin pointed out that Malaysia’s three biggest sources of emissions are electricity generation (40%), road transport (18%) and industries and manufacturing (17%).

“These three sources of emissions add up to 75% of our total emissions. Now, while the whole world is trying to move to electric vehicles (EVs), we can’t be charging the EVs using coal-fired electricity, right? It doesn’t make sense,” Lin noted.

He said Malaysia needs to install at least eight gigawatts of renewable energy between now and 2030.

“Of course, in Malaysia, it will be solar. We don’t have much wind. In the last five years, we have only installed one and a half gigawatt, which shows we have a long way to go,” he said.

Gamuda Engineering Sdn Bhd managing director Justin Chin

On emission trading, Lin said the country needs such a price ecosystem to be up and running in order to kickstart many other things that need to be implemented.

“Singapore has priced its carbon at US$5 (RM21.12) per tonne. Early next year, Indonesia will start at US$2 (RM8.45) per tonne of carbon. Vietnam and Thailand are also going to implement their emission trading systems soon.

“It is important to get our emission trading system up and running quickly. As for the price of carbon, we can start small and and increase it gradually,” said Lin.