A responsible developer: Simon Lee

With more than 20 years of experience in the construction industry, Simon Lee was appointed Executive Director of AME Development, an established property developer in Malaysia, in 2008. He’s overseen the launches of innovative industrial parks i-Park @ SiLC and i-Park @ Indahpura in 2011, SME CITY in 2013 and i-Park @ Senai Airport City in 2017.

Simon discusses how AME Development found success in changing public perception of eco-friendly industrial parks.

What makes AME Development unique?

We are unique because we can complete a factory or warehouse in a short time. We can finish the project fast because we offer integrated services such as construction, steel structural and IBS concrete precast services, and M&E services, through our associates.

On top of that, we offer flexibility, from standard building layouts to custom-built factories, to cater to different industrial needs. This enables the operators to maximise their capacity with ideal building layouts to meet their fast-growing demands while being less time-consuming. Besides that, it cuts their construction, labour and utilities costs.

AME Development always focuses on its niche in developing award-winning industry parks that shaped the company into a competent and reputable industrial park developer in Malaysia. Customers regard us as experts in building factories because we are actively involved in planning and designing superior industrial developments.

By focusing on our niche, we help develop our professional and experienced sales and project team who are capable of handling all queries from various industry operations. The customer’s full confidence and continuous support are our biggest driving force and we continue to strive for the best as their first-choice business partner in property.

Why is sustainability important to the company?

We strive to be a socially responsible developer. The i-Park development is a sustainable and well-managed industrial park and our teams have put a lot of effort into the park’s architecture, landscaping, workers’ dormitory and recreational park to achieve our goals of making i-Park a sustainable place for working, living and leisure activities.

"We strive to be a socially responsible developer."

The management team of i-Park places a strong emphasis on the maintenance of the park to ensure sustainable development in the long run. The professional team ensures a hassle-free ownership experience for investors with a comprehensive list of turnkey solutions aimed to increase value appreciation of the development.

Conventionally, people think about industrial developments as polluted, dirty, contaminated, ill-managed sites. However, we take a different approach by taking the industrial park design to a new level and trying to change that perception for the benefit of the communities that reside around the development and as a role model for future developments.

What makes us different is that we strongly believe industrialisation can be warm, gentle and eco-friendly. Since the launch of i-Park, we have been the talk of the town for being an industrial park that has managed to change the perceptions of industrial developments.

What drives you to do what you do?

The biggest factor that drives us to create quality industrial parks in Malaysia is that we feel many of our MNC clients are not able to find decent industrial factories or warehouses that meet their expectations. We’ve learned a lot from our past experiences with our MNC clients and from there we try to implement those expectations in our industrial park development.

What are your plans for a successful strategy?

We will continue to be innovative and our industrial parks must be quick in adopting changes that are in line with industry needs and transformation. It would be irresponsible of us to create an outdated park not in line with market demand.

"It would be irresponsible of us to create an outdated park."

In the 2019 Budget, Malaysia’s government has set aside approximately RM5 billion (US$1.21 billion) to accelerate businesses’ adoption of Industry 4.0. Adoption of Industry 4.0 means industrial space requirements will change.

The customer tends to move towards customisation of their industrial space with a requirement for higher floor-loading capacity, higher power supply loading and high-speed fibre optic infrastructure.

For AME, our strength is our ability to provide customisation and complete the factories fast. We will continue to increase the content of our factory construction using the industrialised building system method to minimise reliance on labour and improve construction quality. We will also continue to attract more MNCs to our industrial parks and, in turn, this will attract a lot of local SMEs to support those MNCs.

Our focus will continue to be attracting clean industry that does not have a negative impact on the environment.

What are your goals for the company?

First, we plan to develop more industrial parks in the various states of Malaysia and strengthen our market presence. We want to continuously upgrade and provide improvements for our future industrial parks. We also plan to continue as a leader among one-stop industrial space solution providers.

We want to create an i-Park community called i-Park Privilege Club, for sharing information, business networking, and exploring business opportunities within the community. We have a large pool of MNCs and local SMEs in our industrial park, from different countries and business sectors.

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