KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The commercial aerospace, defense and maritime industries are set for high growth over the next few years in the ASEAN region. Increasing economic development, rising demand for travel and trade in the region have especially been driving the need for the region to strengthen its air and sea transport infrastructure to meet up with these demands.

HW LIMA together with knowledge partner Frost & Sullivan plans to address new market opportunities and shed insights on the future of Aerospace, Defense and Maritime Industries at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) Exhibition, happening in March 2013.

"LIMA has been getting a lot of enquiries from new to market companies, which we attribute to the importance of the Asian market vis-a-vis what is currently happening in Europe and the United States. We have partnered with Frost & Sullivan with the aim to continue driving growth by delivering more to our participants. Our new tag-line 'Delivering Asian Markets' encompasses our overall strategy to provide an effective and relevant platform in a region widely considered to be the world's leading growth area for aerospace and maritime," said Mr. Ahmad Dzuhri Wahab, Managing Director of HW LIMA Exhibitions.

On the commercial aviation front, the introduction of LCCs and airport developments in the region are expected to drive growth of this industry in the near future.  According to Frost & Sullivan, passenger traffic across airports in the five major ASEAN countries of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, is expected to reach close to 318 million passengers by 2017. 

Growth of maritime is expected to be driven by increasing port development in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia in efforts to increase their traffic handling capacities.  The total sea freight traffic handled in this region is expected to reach 2.52 billion tonnes by 2017.

On the defense front, the acquisition of UAVs, armoured vehicles, ships and aircraft will drive defense procurement spending in the near future.  A lot of this increased spending is being driven by the rising geopolitical instability in the region and the need for replacement of obsolete military equipment. Defense spending in the ASEAN region is expected to grow at a CAGR of close to 10% during 2012 to 2020, reaching more than US$61 billion by 2020.

"Overall, 2012 to 2020 is expected to be a period of opening up of many growth opportunities for the aerospace, defense and maritime industries in ASEAN region in the near future.  The implementation of several governmental reforms such as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and open skies agreements among ASEAN countries is expected to drive growth of these industries in the region," said Mr. Neil Dave, Consulting Analyst of Aerospace & Defense at Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific.

The Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) Exhibition, from 26 to 30 March 2013, is fast becoming a must attend show for Asia. LIMA is a biennial event that gathers the world's leading maritime and aerospace companies in a week of high impact business and networking activities with special aerobatic and ship displays as highlights.

The exhibition will introduce a number of key new programmes, foremost being the ASEAN Aviation Best Practices Awards, The LIMA '13 Shipbuilding and Ship repair conference and the ASEAN Aviation Conference designed at boosting LIMA's global profile and increase participation.

Registration and booking of space for LIMA'13 is now open and more information on the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2013 can be found at www.lima.com.my.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Carrie Low
Corporate Communications – Asia Pacific
Frost & Sullivan
P: +603 6204 5910
F: +603 6201 7402
E: carrie.low@frost.com

Fairul Ramzi
Manager, Corporate Communications
HW LIMA EXHIBITIONS
P: +603 4142 1699
F: +603 4142 2699
E: fairul@hwlima.org