MALAYSIA
Investvine-June 29
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on a visit to Indonesia on June 29 revived an idea he had some time ago of a project of a Malaysia-Indonesia car for the ASEAN market.
The idea was brought up when he test-drove a Proton car in Malaysia in February 2015 with visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo sitting beside him.
“Back in 2015, we’d discussed to jointly produce a car made by Indonesia and Malaysia for Southeast Asian nations, but it had not been followed up. Now we are looking at reviving the project,” Mahathir said.
“I drove the car at a speed of 180 km/h on the Sepang race circuit. The President [Joko Widodo] did not complain at all when the car was driven at that speed,” Mahathir praised the performance of the Proton and the calmness of the Indonesian leader.
Mahathir was Prime Minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003. During his term, he launched national car brand Proton which basically assembled rebadged Mitsubishis until 2000 when it came up with self-engineered and designed cars and self-produced engines. The company was fully domestically owned until 2017 when a 49.9-per cent stake was sold to Chinese automaker Geely, a move Mahathir publicly disapproved.
After becoming Malaysia’s Prime Minister for the second time on May 10, 2018, Mahathir brought up the idea to start all over with a national car brand in cooperation with other ASEAN countries.
