Malaysia's FMM, Hong Kong productivity council deepen smart manufacturing push

July 08, 2026

Head Office, KL

FMM In The News: New Straits Times (MY), July 7, 2026

FMM president Jacob Lee Chor Kok said both parties have been aggressive in their efforts to identify factories in Malaysia that Hong Kong enterprises can assist to improve productivity among manufacturers in the country. Pic courtesy of PLUG Agency Hong Kong

HONG KONG: The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturing (FMM) plans to scale up its collaboration with Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to accelerate the adoption of smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 among enterprises in both economies.

"HKPC are bringing some of their engineers to visit our factories. They will give us solutions and proposals to further improve operations.

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"That happened immediately after we signed an MoU with them," he told reporters in an interview at the South China Morning Post GBA-Asean Summit.

The FMM and HKPC signed a memorandum of understanding in April to strengthen industrial collaboration and improve manufacturing productivity in both economies.

However, Lee said the pace of collaboration is still slow and will also be costly for Hong Kong enterprises to come to Malaysia for these visits in the long run.

To further streamline the partnership with HKPC, Lee said that FMM plans to invite Hong Kong-based technology or solution provider companies to either set up their operations in Malaysia or initiate a joint venture with local talents.

"I believe this will speed up the rollout of Industry 4.0 or smart manufacturing in both Malaysia and Hong Kong," he added.

Meanwhile, Lee said there is a need for Asean and China's Greater Bay Area (GBA) to have a more resilient and integrated supply chain amid the geopolitical tensions and high tariffs environment.

A greater integration of supply chain between both economies enables Malaysia to seek alternative supply sources amid limited options during the escalating geopolitical tensions.

"At the moment, even though Malaysia is an oil-producing nation, with the disruption in the oil supply, we need to import from the Middle East as there are about 34 critical materials that are in shortage.

"So we need to work together to see how we can have alternative supply sources, working together with the GBA and China in particular.

"However, Malaysia is non-aligned politically, so the neutral policy that the Malaysian government is adopting is actually helping Malaysia to steer through the geopolitical conflicts," he added.

He said the China Plus One strategy is benefiting Malaysia mainly from the renewed interest in investments to the country coming from China as well as Taiwan.

"We need to reconstruct the model between GBA and Asean and go beyond asking what China or what GBA could manufacture for Asean to what we can build together for Asean, China as GBA, as well as the global market.

"In Malaysia, I think our trade policy and even our investment policy are moving towards creating a spillover effect from the foreign direct investment into Malaysia, and then to strengthen the local supply chain," said Lee.

Additionally, Lee said the local manufacturing is eyeing a shared digital certification and product traceability system in an effort to improve supply chain integration with the GBA.

The move will help to create a single and shared digital standard, where a shipment can be traced by its production batch from the factory floor in Malaysia and all the way to consumers in the GBA.

"We will open up a massive, high-yield market for processed food, agricultural products, and cold chain logistics. We would want to put the emphasis on the food sector because we feel that the food sector has a lot of regulations to comply with for food safety.

"Recently, there were 40 containers of durians, not from one origin, that were shipped to China. There was one container that was tested with high doses of the fertiliser, and the whole 40 containers of durians were shipped back to Malaysia. That became a very big challenge.

"So, we do hope that if we can establish an e-certification and interoperability and be accepted by both the regions where there is trust, that can reduce a lot of repeat testings and reduce a lot of paperwork and time for clearance," added Lee.

Source: New Straits Times (MY): Malaysia's FMM, Hong Kong productivity council deepen smart manufacturing push