M'sia set to be a hub for luxury car manufacturers
Monday, May 21, 2007
WORLD luxury car manufacturers are invited to set up their regional hub in Malaysia as the goverment has offered good incentives for them to set up their business in the country.
Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said for the benefit of the luxury car segment, the government has streamlined the import duty for the 2,500cc and above passenger vehicles to 105 per cent beginning January this year.
This was done to promote the development of the car segment especially the luxury cars, she said at the launching of the Porsche Centre Penang and the new Porshe Cayenne for northern market at the Juru Auto-city on Saturday.
"I hope Porsche would look at Malaysia as its potential regional hub in the future and I would like to see others, such as Ferrari as well to do the same. Malaysia welcome all these people to make our country as their hub," she said. At the moment, Porshe has set up its Asia Pacific office in Singapore.
However, Rafidah said that imported cars would not in any way jeopardise the locally assembled and produced cars including the national cars.
Moving on, Rafidah said developments in the global automotive industry were interesting not only in terms of cosolidation amongst global car manufacturers and nationalization of markets, but also the introduction of best practices in the industry, across the entire value chain, from design to production and the after-sales service.
She said new features being installed in the new generation of automobiles, enabled by new and sophisticated technology such as in the area of electronics, would require new approaches in the servicing of the vehicles.
The service centres should not only be adequately equipped with the necessary equipment and gadgets, they must also be manned by people who have been properly trained and kept informed of the latest developments in automotive technology.
Rafidah said the government had approved 10 investments in the automotive sector totalling RM206.2 million for the first three months this year and out of that investment, 92.6 per cent were domestic while foreign investments make up the 7.4 per cent. She said out of the 10 projects, six were new and the other four were expansion and diversification projects.
In 2006, 49 projects had been approved with a total investment of RM532.4 million.
Rafidah said for the first three months of 2007, total exports of motorcars (CBU) increased by 73.2 per cent to 5,801 units from 3,349 units in the corresponding period last year.
Total imports decreased by 35.2 per cent to 3,349 units from 5,167 units in the same period last year, she added.
In 2006, Malaysia's exports of motocars (CBU) exceeded imports by 4,637 units. Exports increased by 37.4 per cent to 17,944 units from 13,062 units in 2005 whilst imports declined by 53.3 per cent to 12,862 units from 27,523 units in 2005.
Major export destinations for CBU cars were the United Kingdom, Australia, Syria, South Africa and Singapore. Bernama
Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said for the benefit of the luxury car segment, the government has streamlined the import duty for the 2,500cc and above passenger vehicles to 105 per cent beginning January this year.
This was done to promote the development of the car segment especially the luxury cars, she said at the launching of the Porsche Centre Penang and the new Porshe Cayenne for northern market at the Juru Auto-city on Saturday.
"I hope Porsche would look at Malaysia as its potential regional hub in the future and I would like to see others, such as Ferrari as well to do the same. Malaysia welcome all these people to make our country as their hub," she said. At the moment, Porshe has set up its Asia Pacific office in Singapore.
However, Rafidah said that imported cars would not in any way jeopardise the locally assembled and produced cars including the national cars.
Moving on, Rafidah said developments in the global automotive industry were interesting not only in terms of cosolidation amongst global car manufacturers and nationalization of markets, but also the introduction of best practices in the industry, across the entire value chain, from design to production and the after-sales service.
She said new features being installed in the new generation of automobiles, enabled by new and sophisticated technology such as in the area of electronics, would require new approaches in the servicing of the vehicles.
The service centres should not only be adequately equipped with the necessary equipment and gadgets, they must also be manned by people who have been properly trained and kept informed of the latest developments in automotive technology.
Rafidah said the government had approved 10 investments in the automotive sector totalling RM206.2 million for the first three months this year and out of that investment, 92.6 per cent were domestic while foreign investments make up the 7.4 per cent. She said out of the 10 projects, six were new and the other four were expansion and diversification projects.
In 2006, 49 projects had been approved with a total investment of RM532.4 million.
Rafidah said for the first three months of 2007, total exports of motorcars (CBU) increased by 73.2 per cent to 5,801 units from 3,349 units in the corresponding period last year.
Total imports decreased by 35.2 per cent to 3,349 units from 5,167 units in the same period last year, she added.
In 2006, Malaysia's exports of motocars (CBU) exceeded imports by 4,637 units. Exports increased by 37.4 per cent to 17,944 units from 13,062 units in 2005 whilst imports declined by 53.3 per cent to 12,862 units from 27,523 units in 2005.
Major export destinations for CBU cars were the United Kingdom, Australia, Syria, South Africa and Singapore. Bernama
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