At the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir witnessed the exchange of agreements between Malaysia’s national carmaker PROTON with Pakistan’s Al-Haj Automotive Group to build a new complete knock-down kit assembly plant in Karachi, Pakistan and an exchange of agreements between PROTON and China Construction Bank in which PROTON will receive a 1.88 Billion MYR (3.1 Billion RMB) loan for further R&D and infrastructure development.
The cooperative agreements between these Chinese, Malaysian, and Pakistani enterprises showcases the potential of the Belt Road Initiative. Also attending the ceremony were Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group; Liu Guiping, President of China Construction Bank; Dato’ Sri Syed Faisal, Group Managing Director of DRB-Hicom and Chairman of PROTON; and Daniel Donghui Li, Executive Vice President and CFO of Geely Holding Group.
Before attending the exchange ceremonies, Dr. Mahathir also attended a dialogue session with PROTON’s Chinese component vendors and parties interested in finding out more about Malaysia’s automotive industry’s market landscape, government policies, incentives and regulations.
Global Revitalization of PROTON
According to the agreement between PROTON and Al-Haj, the new plant will be built on a greenfield site with an initial investment of USD30 million. Within the next three years, the cooperation between the two parties will directly create 2,000 new jobs in the local area and over 20,000 new jobs for supporting industries.
To further accelerate PROTON’s global revitalization, an agreement has been signed between PROTON and China Construction Bank for a 1.888 billion MYR loan earmarked for improving PROTON’s R&D capabilities and infrastructure development. Access to Chinese financing gives a boost to PROTON’s future business expansion plans and global revitalization.
Dr. Mahathir founded PROTON in 1983 as a means to boost the Malaysian automotive industry and has since been a friend and supporter of Malaysia’s national auto brand and its partnership with Geely. As part of the strategy to revitalize PROTON, the company committed itself to playing a more active role in developing Malaysia’s automotive ecosystem by encouraging local vendors to improve their efficiency, quality, expertise and global outlook. This was achieved by matchmaking Malaysian vendors with their Chinese counterparts who already supplied Geely to form new joint-ventures and sign technical agreements. To date, 16 Chinese vendors have signed up for the initiative, cumulating in an initial investment of over 270 million MYR into the Malaysian automotive component industry. These vendors and other interested parties attended a dialogues session with the Prime Minister who has mentioned the industry as a vital component of the Malaysian economy.
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SOURCE: Geely
