SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) is going into a joint venture with GE Aviation to form an engine overhaul company based in Singapore.

The joint venture, which will be 51 per cent owned by GE and 49 per cent by SIAEC, will combine GE Aviation’s design, engineering and innovation strengths with SIAEC’s expertise and delivery in maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services.

It will leverage GE’s “Brilliant Factory” concepts, and use robotics, digitalisation and data analytics to enhance productivity.

The state-of-the-art facility in Singapore is strategic to broadening SIAEC’s capabilities in next generation aircraft, said its chief executive Png Kim Chiang in a statement on Tuesday (Feb 6).

“The joint venture will leverage on the joint strengths of GE’s technical know-how and SIAEC’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) experience, to offer high quality and competitive maintenance solutions for GE engines,” he said.

GE Aviation Services president and chief executive Jean Lydon-Rodgers said that the new joint venture will ensure that the firm’s GE90 and GE9X operators have access to high quality MRO capabilities. – The Straits Times

Surge in credit growth

Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC) has released its report for the fourth quarter of 2017, which showed significant growth in applications for credit, particularly in the credit card and mortgage sectors.

The bureau reported a 19 percent increase in applications for credit compared to the third quarter of last year, which surpassed the third quarter growth rate of 10 percent and the second quarter negative growth rate of 15 percent.

Applications for new lines of credit grew fastest in the plateau region, which usually ranks as Cambodia’s poorest region and includes Kratie, Mondulkiri, Ratanakkiri, Stung Treng and Preah Vihear provinces. The growth in that region was primarily driven by mortgage applications, which grew a whopping 271 percent, compared to the 62 percent growth in mortgage applications countrywide. – Phnom Penh Post

Indonesia-Cambodia trade

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Indonesia amounted to $492.7 million in the first 11 months of last year, a 23 percent increase compared to the same period in 2016, according to a report from an Indonesian state-run news agency.

Indonesian Antara reported the growth in bilateral trade, noting that Indonesia had invested primarily in the fields of culinary arts, housing, transportation and infrastructure improvements in Cambodia. The news came at the end of a three-day visit by Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs Prak Sokhonn, who left Indonesia on Saturday. – Phnom Penh Post