To:

The Editor, New Straits Times.

I refer to En. Irwan Shah Zainal Abidin’s article headlined “Car makers need to buck up” published in your newspaper on 14 January 2013, page 18, and would comment as follows. 

  1. The automotive industry is an important part of our national economy and is being given the serious attention it deserves. Its future depends on how we address two questions: what needs to be done to ensure that the industry can compete in a fast-changing global environment, and should its future direction be.
  2.  Both issues are being addressed by the on-going review of the National Automotive Policy. It is obvious that if we are serious about wanting to put our automotive industry on a proper footing and make it competitive regionally and internationally, we should be prepared to review all policy assumptions that have guided our actions in the past. 
  3. Encik Irwan Shah has referred to some of these considerations in his article and I welcome his contribution to the discussion of this issue. It would be premature for me, however, to indicate the nature and extent of the policy changes that the revised NAP will usher in, pending its completion and announcement.
  4. But Encik Irwan Shah is right when he points out that there is a consensus that Malaysia should focus on the production and sale of energy efficient vehicles (EEV) -  including electric and hybrid – in the coming years. This was the feedback we received from all sectors of the automotive industry which were consulted during the recent NAP review exercise. If, indeed, this new focus on EEV is adopted as part of future policy, one can expect that this move will be supported by relevant incentives

MOHAMAD MADANI SAHARI
Chief Executive Officer

            Malaysia Automative Institute