The Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2021 (LIMA’21) which is supposed to take place on March 16 to 20 next year will be canceled.
The Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) said in a statement that the cancellation was due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which was seen to have a significant impact on the number of exhibitors and investors participating in international events such as LIMA.
“It is closely related to the steps taken by most countries to close borders and restrict travel abroad to reduce the risk of the epidemic, further making it difficult for the ministry to achieve the set participation targets.
“Besides, time constraints in challenging situations also contribute because the organization of such large-scale events requires a reasonable period to be planned carefully and in detail including to carry out promotional and publicity activities to obtain participation targets and also meet the needs of various related sectors,” said MINDEF in the statement.
In the meantime, it will also affect the impact on LIMA branding which has been classified as a major maritime and aerospace exhibition in the Asian region.
Commenting further, the statement explained that the cancellation was also influenced by the return on expenses of the government and the organizing company.
“The cost of organizing LIMA’21 is expected to increase taking into account the need to meet the standard operating procedures (SOP) that have been set.
“With the expectation that the number of entries will decrease, it will be difficult to achieve a return on investment compared to the costs incurred by the government and the organizers,” the statement added.
It is understood that the cancellation decision was also made after taking into account the views of the stakeholders as well as other related parties.
Source: MINDEF