Labuan can do it

BAE Systems, which recently received a Letter of Intent to provide two frigates for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) via an industrial partnership with Labuan Shipyard & Engineering Sdn Bhd (LSE), believes that the local firm can undertake the job once it has readied itself. LSE has been appointed by the government to be the lead Malaysian facility for the frigate programme, which is expected to take four to five years to complete.

Steve Meighan, managing director (Asia Pacific) of BAE Systems, said it would take about six months to improve the infrastructure facilities at LSE’s shipyard in Labuan before the programme could get underway.