Institute seeks new opportunities for Malay vehicle traders to penetrate Asean market

THE Malaysian Automotive Institute ( MAI) is seeking new opportunities to enable the Malaysian Association of Malay Vehicle Importers and Traders ( Pekema) in positioning itself as the sales and distributor representative in Asean countries, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the move was in line with the development of automotive companies in Malaysia which was growing rapidly.

“Therefore, the ministry will continue to assist Bumiputera automotive skilled workers and entrepreneurs in becoming more competitive in line with the 2014 National Automotive Policy,” he said when replying to a question from Datuk Rozman Isli ( BNLabuan).

Rozman had wanted to know how MAI and Pekema would cooperate in developing Bumiputera automotive skilled workers and entrepreneurs especially in seeking opportunities of the 2015 Asean Economic Community (AEC) action plan in line with MAI’s objectives in assisting Pekema.

Mustapa said MAI also helped Pekema to identify new opportunities to penetrate potential used car export market in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

MAI, an agency under the ministry, was established in 2010 to coordinate the industry development of all matters related to automotive including the national automotive policy, development of skilled workers, technology and supply chain and also coordinating all after sales activities.

Since its inception, a total of 11,463 graduates, 323 companies and employees of the automotive sector have attended the capacity development programmes conducted by MAI, among them are the ‘ Industry Led Professional Certification’,’Autom otive Apprenticeship Programme,’ and the ‘Automotive Industry Certification Engineering, Mustapa said. — Bernama