Europe’s biggest automaker, Volkswagen, is to join forces with DRB-HICOM, one of Malaysia’s largest car distributors and importers, to assemble and manufacture cars in the country, a report said yesterday.
Volkswagen inked an agreement on Friday with DRB-HICOM to roll-out Volkswagen vehicles at its Pekan manufacturing facility in central Pahang state, the Edge business newspaper said.
The announcement comes after national carmaker Proton in June said it had scrapped alliance talks with the German company, a move expected to dent Proton’s attempts to secure export markets.
Mohamad Khamil Jamil, DRB’s group managing director said DRB-HICOM hoped that the entry of Volkswagen into Pekan would help it to become a regional automotive hub.
“This memorandum of understanding is the culmination of intense discussions and both parties anticipate the production of the Complete Knock Down models in Malaysia,” he said.
Production of Volkswagen models in Malaysia is expected to start in 2012.
Pekan is DRB-HICOM’s largest automotive manufacturing facility in Malaysia. The company also assembles cars from Honda and Mercedes-Benz.
Proton has been searching for a collaborator in a bid to break into foreign markets and develop attractive models to compete with growing competition from Japanese, European and South Korean carmakers in its domestic market.
Proton was formed in 1983 by former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad as part of an ambitious national industrialization plan, but it has suffered from a reputation for unimaginative models and poor quality.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS