The council, chaired by the defence ministry’s secretary-general, was formed to safeguard the interests of local defence industry players, Nordin Ahmad Ismail (PN-Lumut) said.

“But, unfortunately, it is not active. This is a disappointment to the industry players who wish to voice their concerns,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

Nordin asked what other avenues were provided by the ministry to ensure concerns of industry players were heard.

He added that the ministry should not “take the easy way out” by procuring military assets from external vendors while ignoring the competencies of local manufacturers.

The MDIC, which was created in 1999, also comprises government officials and the heads of local defence companies.

There are six working groups dealing with specified defence industry fields, namely aerospace, maritime, weaponry, automotive, information and communications technology (ICT) and common-user equipment.

Separately, Nordin also called for a parliamentary special select committee (PSSC) to be set up to oversee the government’s procurement of military assets.

He said the PSSC could deliberate on the selection process for purchasing military assets for the defence ministry.

“This is to enable such procurements are done in a transparent manner and to avoid any further leakages like what happened with the littoral combat ship (LCS) project,” he said.

Nordin said the bi-partisan committee could ensure that the defence ministry practised more caution in assessing and awarding contracts to vendors, especially when the procurements involved billions of ringgit.

On Feb 24, it was reported that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s probe into the controversial LCS project was still ongoing.