KUALA LUMPUR: The government is working to restructure the National Automotive Policy 2020 action plan launched early this year to ensure the country's automotive sector remains competitive post-Covid-19 pandemic.
Senior International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali told the Dewan Rakyat today the exercise would see the government intensify efforts to attract more investments in high-technology and environmentally-friendly vehicles segment as well as the development of local skilled-workforce.
He said the pandemic triggered "unintended economic consequences" on several sectors including the automotive sector which affected investment, production and sales in the industry.
The sales of passengers and commercial vehicles, he said, had plunged to only 141 units in April from 22,478 units during the previous month when the Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented on March 18.
"The sales of vehicles revived and experienced an increase following the government's decision to reopen almost all economic sectors beginning May 4.
"The Total Industry Volume (TIV) reached 22,960 units for May. The figures, however, is way lower from the TIV recorded during the same month last year which was 60,790," Azmin said.
He was responding to a question by Ong Kian Ming (Pakatan Harapan-Bangi), on the estimation of TIV in the automatic sector for this year and if the government planned to introduce more targeted assistance and incentives stimulate the automotive industry.
Based on the projection by the Motorcycle and Scooter Assemblers and Distributors Association (MASAAM), Azmin said the sales of motorcycles were also badly affected during the peak of the pandemic, in which, no transactions over sales of motorcycles took place in April.
"The sales of motorcycles, however, recovered the following months with 19,507 units and 42,190 units sold for May and June respectively," he said.
He added that the initiatives introduced under the Penjana Economic Recovery Plan which amongst others provided 100 per cent and 50 per cent sales tax exemptions for locally-assembled and imported vehicles respective would help to revive the sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market.
To a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan (Barisan Nasional-Pontian) related to the third national car which was introduced under the previous Pakatan Harapan government, Azmin said the present administration had a framework to ensure all criteria of the vehicle must be adhered to.
"At the moment, we want to ensure that the Bumiputera company which was given the responsibility and cooperate with MARii (Malaysia Automotive Robotics and IoT Institute) to develop (the third national car) continue with such efforts.
"Having that said, this initiative is a private initiative and receives no allocation from the government."
