Aker Kvaener ASA, Norwegian oil and gas engineering group, plans to invest up to Malaysian Ringit 400 million in building a manufacturing center in Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), Malaysia’s first fully facilities free commercial and industrial zone.
“Aker Kvaener has taken up 66 acres in Precinct 2 which is more than 10 percent of the prepared industrial land available at PKFZ,” according to a PKFZ website, www.pkfz.com
PKFZ will be officially open next month with full facilities on site, whereas, Aker Kvaener’s operations will begin on March 01, 2007.
It said the center will play a very important role in supporting Aker Kvaener’s oil and gas exploration in the Asia Pacific.
“Since our first tenant Aker Kvaener, which signed up in June 2006, we have had many more successful discussions and are in the midst of finalizing agreements with other potential tenants,” said PKFZ general manger Noel Gulliver.
“Apart from oil and gas companies, potential tenants are varied in their respective industries with multi-national companies, small and medium industries, distribution, value-adding and logistic services registering their interest,” continued Gulliver.
The concept of PKFZ is to allow both commercial and manufacturing activities to exist side by side, to promote entrepôt trade and manufacturing activities by international companies involved in producing goods mainly for export.
Therefore, factories and logistic firms can be located in the same zone to promote easier coordination and smoother supply chain management, making PKFZ the first development of its kind in Malaysia as an integrated free commercial and industrial zone.
