PARIS: When the 2017 edition of the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition (Lima) ended just three months ago, it was declared the biggest and best.

But organiser EN Projects (M) Sdn Bhd is already planning to outdo itself.

Its chief executive officer, Shaun Jacobson, not intending to rest on his laurels, has plans for the maritime and aerospace segments of the show in 2019.

Jacobson has been promoting Lima 2019 since before this year’s show had ended and, together with EN Projects chairman Admiral (Rtd) Tan Sri Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor, was at the Paris International Airshow this past week, drumming up support from exhibitors.

He will be at other exhibitions, including Farnborough next year, and the Defence Services Asia exhibition and conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking to the New Straits Times here, Jacobson said Lima 2019 was expected to be 20 per cent bigger than this year’s exhibition.

At 119,209 sq m, Lima 2017 was 15,000 sq m or so bigger than the show two years earlier, so increasing the exhibition space another 20 per cent would be no mean feat.

To do this, EN Projects planned to do two things. The first would be to double the size of the exhibition hall at Resorts World Langkawi, where the maritime segment takes centre stage.

“We will have a brand new component — an area for demonstrations of military technologies. This includes for start-up companies and university students.

“This is so that new technology can be shown outside the exhibition hall, in a dedicated area,” said Jacobson.

Lima 2019, he said, would see a 50-50 division of the aerospace segment between the commercial and defence industries.

This would be in line with
the government’s vision of putting equal emphasis on both aspects of the fledgling national aviation industry.

Since its inception in 1991, Lima has been under the purview of the Defence Ministry.

However, for the first time, this year’s exhibition had been a joint effort between the Defence and Transport Ministries.

While there had always been participation from the commercial aviation and maritime industries, the defence and security industries were more heavily represented.

With Lima 2017, however, the joint effort of the two ministries had resulted in a more equitable, though still not equal, distribution of exhibitors between the commercial and the military.