KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — National carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd exchanged two documents in Beijing yesterday with its Pakistani and Chinese partners to help power the company’s future expansion plans.
Proton in a statement said the first was an exchange of documents for the licensing and technical assistance agreement (LTAA) between Proton and Al-Haj Automotive, the official distributor of Proton vehicles in Pakistan.
“A follow-up to the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony held in Islamabad in March, the LTAA cements the agreement for Proton and Al-Haj to build a new completely knocked down (CKD) production plant to assemble and distribute Proton vehicles in Pakistan,” it said.
The new plant will be built in Karachi on a greenfield site with an initial investment of US$30 million, and will create 2,000 direct employment opportunities in its first three years of operations and an estimated 20,000 indirect jobs in supporting industries in the coming years.
The second document exchange was between Proton and China Construction Bank (CCB) for banking facilities worth RM1.88 billion to finance Proton’s future business expansion plans as it strives to achieve its goal to be the number one automotive brand in Malaysia and number three in Asean by 2027.
The exchange of documents was witnessed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, who is in Beijing to attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
Proton is also committed to developing Malaysia’s automotive ecosystem by encouraging local vendors to develop their efficiency, quality and expertise to supply the high-technology components required by its future range of offerings.
This has been done by matchmaking Malaysian vendors with their counterparts from China who were already suppliers to Geely to form new joint-venture companies and sign technical agreements.
“To date, 16 Chinese vendors have signed up for the initiative with six coming in as foreign direct investors. Cumulatively, these deals have garnered an initial investment of over RM270 million with 56 per cent of the vendors supplying the electronics and electrical components sector,” the statement said.
Sales of Proton vehicles for the first quarter of 2019 have exceeded expectations by growing at the fastest rate among the three leading automotive brands in Malaysia.
The charge is led by the Proton X70, which has been the best-selling SUV since its introduction.
“Currently, over 11,000 units have been delivered since the launch on Dec 12, 2018 while over 26,000 bookings have been placed for Proton’s first SUV,” it added. — Bernama
