Malaysia to send proposal on national car project to Indonesia

LANGKAWI: Malaysia will send a proposal to Indonesia in regard to cooperation for the manufacture of the third national car.

The project will be a joint venture between both countries, which Dr Mahathir had broached during his visit to Indonesia.

“I had touched on the matter (during visit to Indonesia), but I do not know they are interested or not,” he said.

“They want to see the proposal and we will hand it over.”

Dr Mahathir said the proposal would include a collaboration between the two countries to manufacture auto parts.

Besides Indonesia, Dr Mahathir also invited Japan to implement a national car production project, which was in the planning stage.

Dr Mahathir said Malaysia’s ratings would continue to rise as long as the government was able to manage its economy well.

He was commenting on the S&P Global Ratings yesterday, which reaffirmed Malaysia’s foreign currency and local currency ratings with a stable outlook.

The firm had reaffirmed the country’s “A-/A-2” foreign currency and “A/A-1” local currency ratings.

The international rating analyst indicated that it might raise the ratings over the next 24 months if the strong economic performance continued from the previous years.

“If we can manage our economy well, then our ratings will rise again,” Dr Mahathir said.