More than 400 VVIPS expected to attend Lima 2023

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 400 top leaders (VVIPs) from all over Asia are expected to attend the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (Lima) 2023 which will be held from May 23 to 27.

Alpine Solutions Sdn Bhd (Alpine) executive director Muhammad Aqlan Pacleb said these VVIPs include defence ministers, transport ministers and the heads of national defence and security agencies.

He said the presence of these individuals will be able to convince exhibitors to participate in the exhibition which at the same time, creates a business potential for them.

"We will have at least 410 VVIPs who are decision makers from the region that exhibitors will meet,” he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama.

Lima 2023, themed 'The Nexus of Asia's Maritime and Aerospace Trade', involves two ministries working together, namely the Defence Ministry (Mindef) for the Maritime and Aerospace Defence Industry and the Transport Ministry (MOT) for the Maritime and Aerospace Commercial Industry.

Muhammad Aqlan said this upcoming Lima, which is synonymous with the defence and security exhibition, will also see the participation of MOT (for the commercial sector) for the second time. MOT’s first participation was in Lima 2019 edition.

He acknowledged that Alpine as the organiser of Lima 2023 initially found it difficult to convince exhibitors for the commercial sector but the MOT believes that Lima is not just a defence and security exhibition because there are companies that participated not just to meet the defence and security industry market.

"For example, Airbus manufactures engine manufacturing and provides jet fighter engines, at the same time they also produce engines for commercial use...We have strong support from MOT that Lima is not only for defence and security exhibitions but also for the commercial sector,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alpine managing director Anita Jacobson said Lima 2023 is also targeting international markets.

"For sales and marketing campaigns abroad we have participated in a similar exhibition in the United Kingdom, Thailand and Singapore and met all the captains of the industries to alert them that Lima 2023 is on (after the 2021 edition was not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the world at that time),” she said.

She added that 600 companies have registered to participate in the exhibition with 70 per cent participation from international companies from 30 countries while the other 30 per cent are local companies.

The biennial exhibition was last held in 2019. - Bernama