Malaysia's status as an auto manufacturer is in jeopardy if national car firm Proton is surrendered to foreign control, Proton adviser and ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad warned in remarks published yesterday.
Mahathir, who created Proton in 1983 as part of Malaysia's drive into heavy industry, also said the carmaker should not sell ailing British arm Lotus group but must aim to cut cost and improve quality and technology to be competitive.
In an interview with The Edge weekly, Mahathir acknowledged that a foreign partner for Proton was "crucial because we cannot come up with sufficient technology for ourselves."
But "the end result of selling Proton, stopping the national car, would be Malaysia as an assembler of motor cars for Malaysia alone," he warned.
"Not even for the rest of the world because it is cheaper to assemble cars in other countries where cost of labor is low," he said, adding that many people would also lose their jobs and supporting industries would shut down.
Analysts have said it would be a long hunt for Proton unless the government was willing to trade in its dream of a national car industry for a pragmatic foreign tie-up.
But Mahathir, recently appointed adviser to the company after retiring last October, said he believed foreign carmakers would still be keen for an alliance without a majority stake because "Proton's capabilities are quite attractive."
"About four or five [foreign] companies have been talking to Proton," he said but declined to give details.
State investment arm Khazanah Nasional, the single largest shareholder, is said to be considering plans to allow a foreign carmaker to hold up to 20 percent equity in Proton after its Japanese partner Mitsubishi Motors bailed out.
Trading house Mitsubishi Corp still holds another 7.9 percent in Proton and is believed to be in talks to sell it to Khazanah.
Mahathir said Malaysia was not losing out to Thailand, which has emerged as a regional assembly hub for car manufacturers.
Despite government protection, he said Proton can be considered a success because it was making money and could build its 1.8 billion ringgit (US$474 million) new plant without injection of new government capital.
Mahathir said he would "not advise the sale of Lotus unless it is hemorrhaging very badly and it is not contributing anything."
He also defended the government's high taxes that made cars in Malaysia more expensive than those in Japan and South Korea, saying it was partly to prevent traffic jams.
"We have such high prices because we don't want to sell [too many] cars ... if we reduce the price of Proton cars and other cars, we will not be selling 450,000 cars a year. We would be selling a million cars a year. We just can't keep up with it," he said.
Proton used to sell six out of 10 new cars in the country but for the first time in years, its market share shrank to 49 percent last year, from 60 percent in 2002, as sales tumbled to 155,420 units.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS