Azmin: Malaysians abroad keen on contributing towards 3rd national car project

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali said today there are Malaysians abroad who are interested to come home and play a part in the third national car project that was mooted by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby after addressing the Upper House on the 11th Malaysia Plan (RMK11) midterm review, Azmin said the goal of the project is to develop engineering capacity among Malaysians.

“...as I mentioned to Dewan Negara, it is not about building the car, but I think the main objective is to enhance our engineering capacity among Malaysians and to build a new ecosystem which is very deeply involved in innovation and new technology. I think that is the main objective,” he said.

“There are Malaysians who are abroad at present and they are interested to come back and put in their ideas and knowledge into this new proposal which is good for the country. We bring back these brains to Malaysia.”

He added that the topic was still in discussion and yesterday he brought the matter up to the National Development Council which is chaired by the prime minister.

A secretariat has been charged to discuss the issue with all stakeholders to prepare a prototype. He hopes it will be ready by next year.

Touching on the biggest economic challenge facing the nation, Azmin admitted that restoring investor confidence both foreign and domestic is critical.

“I think that is the key challenge. But I think with all the initiatives taken by the Cabinet, the prime minister and I in the last few months, it has improved the level of confidence among investors and they wanted to come back to Malaysia, to put in their investment.

“So we will continue to ensure that it is a business friendly government, and the role of the government is to facilitate investors to park their investment in Malaysia,” he said.

When asked if Putrajaya was going to recalibrate the 2019 Budget in light of the fluctuating oil price, Azmin said he did not want to jump to conclusions.

The government had based the budget on US$70 per barrel for crude oil.

“I’m leaving tonight (to attend the) Opec meeting, even though we not a member but they need the support of the small producers like Malaysia to help stabilise the price of petroleum so we will participate a discussion tomorrow in Vienna,” said Azmin.