Refleksi: Hebat! Malaysia mau memproduksi auto Islamiah?
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BERNAMA
November 10, 2007 16:38 PM Malaysia, Iran And Turkey Plan To Produce 'Islamic' Cars >From Tengku Noor Shamsiah TEHRAN, Nov 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysia together with Iran and Turkey plan to produce "Islamic" cars for the global market, according to Proton Holdings Bhd's managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir. >From an idea mooted by Iran, the proposed cars are expected to have Islamic >features such as compass, kiblat reading and compartment for keeping the >Al-Quran and scarves. "What they (Iran) want to do is to call that an Islamic car," he told Bernama on the sidelines of a dinner organised by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) here last night. "They have identified and proposed three countries -- Iran, Malaysia and Turkey. Why these three countries? I think it's because they are automotive-based," he said. The dinner was held in conjunction with the visit of Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Mohd Affendi Norwawi, to Iran. The minister is leading a 40-member delegation comprising government officials and representatives from private companies on a visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran from Nov 5 to 11. Objective of the mission is to identify potentially large business opportunities for Malaysian companies. It is also meant to explore possible joint ventures between Malaysian companies and those in the Middle East as well as to attract investments from the Middle East in Malaysia's economic corridors development. Representatives from Proton, Petronas, Khazanah Nasional Bhd, MDeC, UEM Group Bhd, Zaid Ibrahim & Company, and Iskandar Regional Development Authority are among those in the mission. According to Syed Zainal, the Islamic car proposal will be a good opportunity for all those involved. "We will identify a car that we can develop to be produced in Malaysia, Iran or Turkey," he said. "The car will have all the Islamic features and should be meant for export purposes," he added. Syed Zainal said with government support, the Islamic car producers will be able to get a big volume of orders. "For Proton, we are more than happy because we have products that we can share. For us, the proposal will be an advantage because it can help reduce our cost of development and provide better volume and economies of scale," he said. -- BERNAMA
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