Proton成就了扶泰國的汽車工業

Malaysia seeks bigger role in auto world
(Bangkok Post Friday May 26, 2006)

Motor show aims to raise profile

ALFRED THA HLA
Kuala Lumpur _ Malaysia has stepped up its efforts to compete against
Thailand to become a regional hub for the automotive industry, using a
major motor show to raise its profile.

The Kuala Lumpur International Motorshow 2006 (KLIMS), which runs from
today to June 4, is expected to draw 350,000 visitors and showcases
242 companies with 176 brands from 16 countries.

Malaysia needs a jumpstart for its auto industry, which has fallen
behind the ''Detroit of Asia'' as Thailand is known.

Thailand has become a global production hub for one-ton pickup trucks,
with nearly every major international player represented with
manufacturing and assembly plants.

Malaysia, on the other hand, has resisted competition by placing the
emphasis on its national-car programmes, Proton and Perodua, which are
based on Mitsubishi and Daihatsu technologies respectively.

Thailand, despite the absence of a national car programme, has a
market dominated by three Japanese brands: Toyota, Isuzu and Honda.

While Malaysia may have regional ambitions, it has a way to go, if
figures from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (Jama) are
a guide. Local assembly of Japanese makes totalled 460,000 units last
year in Malaysia, versus more than one million in Thailand, which also
has a thriving automobile export sector.

Domestic vehicle sales in Thailand last year totalled 703,000, against
551,000 units in Malaysia, which has less than half the population of
its northern neighbour.

However, soaring oil prices and the continuing political stalemate
have applied the brakes to Thailand's drive to become the outright
regional leader of the automotive industry.

Malaysia is not lacking in potential, and the fact that it is on the
Formula One calendar with annual races on the Sepang Circuit is good
from an image standpoint. It certainly has the resources, capability
and market potential to build its automotive industry to new heights
but is still behind Thailand in sheer volume, production capability
and export-hub status.