KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Government documents shared by Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin that showed a “flying vehicle” were simply drafts of the National Automotive Policy review, deputy minister Ong Kian Ming said today.
The deputy minister of international trade and industry (Miti) also said that his ministry inserted “flying vehicle” under standards and specifications to address any future demand, stressing that this did not necessarily mean the government would build it.
Ong, replying to Khairy, also explained the documents were part of a presentation Miti used during discussions with major players and stakeholders of the automotive industry.
“It clearly states a disclaimer the document is a draft for discussion purposes only, where the information contained here is subject to change and does not commit the government of Malaysia,” Ong explained in Parliament.
“I am surprised YB Rembau did not include this in his tweet; I will tweet this later on to show this is the case.
“We are very happy to receive thoughts and ideas, but what we do not appreciate so much is for him to focus on one aspect,” he said.
On Tuesday, Khairy had in a tweet tagged the deputy minister where the post showed documents of Miti’s meeting over the National Automotive Policy review.
Khairy, in his post, had also circled part of the document concerning flying cars, questioning how it had made it to the national policy review.
Seriously, YB @imokman? pic.twitter.com/qqUJxCtAxj
— Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) March 26, 2019
“The aspect of the flying vehicle, it is clearly stated where by it is only for the purpose of talking about standards and specifications,” said Ong.
“We put in flying vehicles is not because we are saying we are necessarily going to build flying vehicles.
“It is to address the needs for standards and regulations should be there a demand for the application of such technology by the automotive industry in the future,” Ong explained.
Ong described the tweet by Khairy that highlighted the flying car as “naughty” and instead said the ministry would welcome constructive criticism from the Opposition.
“We would value if YB Rembau and others in Opposition bench would be able to give us ideas on how to grow the automotive sector, rather than to focus on one or two keywords which is actually not reflective of the true situation in our discussions,” he added.
Ong included the policy review is expected to be released by the second quarter of this year, and reiterated that there were no plans within the National Automotive Policy to build the flying car as part of the third national car project.
