KUALA LUMPUR: The largest aerospace and maritime display in the Asia Pacific region – the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (Lima) exhibition – is making a comeback next year.

Similar to previous years, Langkawi will play host to the 2023 iteration of the mega event scheduled to be held for five days from May 23 onwards.

The matter was announced by Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein during the pre-launching ceremony of Lima’23 at Wisma Pertahanan here today.

“We expect Lima’23 to be more spectacular and targeting a greater number of participations involving more than 600 exhibitors compared to the previous editions of the event,” said Hishammuddin.

Held since 1991, the last biennial aerospace and maritime showcase was held in 2019 (Lima’19) where it attracted more than 40,000 trade visitors and 240,000 public visitors.

More than 400 companies from all over the continents participated in Lima’19, which concluded with over RM4 billion in contracts being inked throughout the event that year.

The 15th edition of the event was supposed to be held from March 16 to 20 in 2021, but it was cancelled due to global concerns and restrictions in place to curb the spread of Covid-19.