PERUSAHAAN Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua), the country's largest car company by sales volume, will be spending nearly RM4 billion to buy local parts this year. "Our purchase of local parts this year is expected to reach RM3.8 billion. In the past two years, we bought some RM3 billion per year of local parts and components," its managing director Aminar Rashid Salleh said yesterday.

The bigger budget was triggered by the higher localisation of its models and projected sales of 176,000 units this year, up from 166,700 last year.

The higher spending is meant for its Myvi and Viva compact cars as well as Alza multi-purpose vehicle.

The models have between 80 per cent and 90 per cent local content, Aminar Rashid told reporters after Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir officiated at the line-off ceremony for the 200,000th Viva in Serendah, Selangor.

Perodua chairman Tan Sri Asmat Kamaludin said the increase in production and local content would benefit more than 130 vendors and suppliers.

The company has been promoting local vendors through its vendor development and improvement programmes, he added.

It has invested RM97 million in facilities alone for its research and development (R&D) and more than RM1.5 billion in model development in the past 13 years.

Perodua is also considering increasing exports of its vehicles and parts like crankshafts and cylinder heads, particularly in Southeast Asia.

At present, it exports some 2,000 units a year to countries like the UK, Singapore, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Fiji and Brunei.

The company exported RM27.3 million worth of parts to Japan, Indonesia and Pakistan last year. Total export value since 2003 is RM85 million.

Aminar Rashid also said that orders for the Alza had reached 23,000 units since its launch last November.

It has delivered about 10,000 units to date.

Perodua plans to increase production of the Alza to more than 5,000 units from this month to cut the waiting time to less than two months, from two to three months currently.