Proton has officially announced that it will set up a new local assembly plant in Pakistan, which will be owned and operated by Alhaj Automotive. This comes after the national carmaker entered into an agreement with Alhaj back in August 29, 2018.
The plant will be built at a Greenfield site in Karachi with an initial investment of USD30 million (about RM121.9 million), and is expected to commence operations before the end of 2020.
Around 2,000 direct employment opportunities will be created within the plant’s first three years of operations, with a further 20,000 indirect jobs. Furthermore, as part of the agreement, Alhaj will also be the sole distributor for Proton vehicles in Pakistan.
“Proton is very pleased its partnership with Alhaj Automotive has moved forward very quickly since we inked the agreement in August 2018. Expanding the sales of Proton vehicles outside of Malaysia is vital for us to achieve our long-term goals and we therefore hope for the Pakistan automotive market to be one of our growth engines for the future,” said Datuk Sri Syed Faisal Albar, chairman of Proton.
“Alhaj Automotive is delighted to be the official distributor for Proton in Pakistan. We will leverage on our current dealerships located nationwide to start selling Proton vehicles as soon as possible while we develop standalone 3S/4S outlets at the same time,” said Al-Haj Shah Jee Gul Afridi, chairman of Alhaj Automotive.
“Initially we will source CBU units from Malaysia before switching to CKD products once the new assembly plant begins operations before the end of 2020,” he added.
With Proton’s aiming to sell 400,000 units yearly by 2027 as part of its “seven stars” strategy, export sales and the establishment of CKD assembly plants in overseas markets represent an important step to achieve that figure.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Tahniah Proton Baru. Malaysia Baru
Why is Malaysian based company creating jobs for other people in other countries?
Better to give the jobs to Malaysians. Invest in Malaysia. the money circulates within Malaysia making Malaysia richer.
Why do we make another country richer?
Steven Xu ?
All key position from China … What’s left of Proton ?
But the Logo hanging on the wall.
And yet you complain about 12k ‘idle’ workers…. Forked tongue as usual.
YB oh YB…. your logic is nonsensical. P1 JV with Geely = money outflow. When this private entity JV to assemble P1 cars in Pakistan, also = money outflow….
So why Toyota or Honda need to create jobs in bolehland?
Better give the 22,000 jobs to Malaysians than give it to Pakistan
Then? You prefer 22,000 Pakistanis come here to do those jobs? Later you pandai complain why so many foreign workers here. Pfft!
Haters gonna hate no matter what. Illogical creatures that defy nature.
These are locally assembled cars for the Pakistani market. The only way PROTON can be competitive in that country is by having local assembly. Is that so hard to compute or are you blind to any positive development for the company?
30 years of motoring down the drain. We are now just a rebadger. We just tampal logo and sticker on Geely cars.
The same with Perodua as well.
So shameful. 30 years of Motoring, we never learnt anything.
First car to be assembled is Pakistan is Proton Saga. Is that rebadged Geely or a car that is 100% designed and built by PROTON?
Everyday finding new ways to move money out…
Did you read the story? Especially the part about the distributor investing the money for the new plant? Did it say anywhere that PROTON is paying for the plant? When the CKD packs go to Pakistan the payment goes to PROTON. So which part is money going out?
Tahniah! Expand ur wings and grab more opportunities!
P1, Geely, Mesidis, VolvoCar, Volvo Trucks, Lotus, L&C, Polestar > all
Yes! Proton now become distributor of Geely vehicles
Better than being a dustbin to recycle Jepun trash.
Proton is now just an official reseller of Geely cars. Shameful
All money collected for Proton X70 sales goes back to making China richer because it is CBU China
Disgrace
I prefer money goes back to China, at least we know they will use it to setup more R&D centers in Malaysia.
When money goes back to Japan, we get nothing. We make Japan richer but they give us nothing except their outdated cars. What a disgrace. Whoever supports sending money back to Japan has no shame.
Habislah! Expand ur wings but finally Game Over and kolos kedai!
All, Geely, Mesidis, VolvoCar, VolvoTruck, Lotus, L&D, Polestar > P1
Well done NissanP2 Salesman who always come here to talk badmouth about Proton. Just look at Nissan car design, looks like ah beng as well as Nissan have biggest Engine failure rate due to too much Xtronic Gearbox where it always have problematic which will be more riskier to the consumers.
Proton overseas ventures all result in ZERO. Even in Singapore, got big fancy showroom with so many staff but last year only sold grand total of 1 car
So, untung say RM1000 for one car but spend SGD500k (RM1.5 million) on rental and staff salary
Copy paste: “Did you even read the story? It’s a joint effort between Proton and Alhaj. So it’s not PROTON’s investment. It’s their distributor. And why not build in Malaysia and send to Pakistan? Same reason why the market for CKD cars is more than 10 times the size for CBU cars here.
Next time use the internet to do just a bit of research before you want to bash someone.”
Distributor wings HAHAHAHAHAHA
What happened to last year’s Bangladesh venture? We saw Proton also signing an agreement in Bangladesh.
Apa sudah jadi?
Every year Proton signs with different countries…..but got any results?
Someone needs to start tracking the outflow of money from Proton and ask them to start reporting the progress of each investment!!!!!
With Proton’s aiming to sell 400,000 units yearly by 2027 as part of its “seven stars” strategy, export sales and the establishment of CKD assembly plants in overseas markets represent an important step to achieve that figure.
Can Proton pls tell us how many cars have they sold overseas especially Bangladesh?
Proton said Bangladesh sales were so happening but the Bangladeshis I speak to in KL say they have never seen Proton in Bangladesh at all
Well China controls Pakistan …how ? “Debt Trap” ..China owns Proton through Geely..how? “Najis work ” ..I wouldn’t be surprise if there were more China employees than Pakistani employees at the assembly plant in Pakistan itself ..
Dude, have you even read the article? It’s stated the plant will be owned and operated by the Pakistani partners, which means the capital outlay to build and operate the assembly plant is from them, not Proton.
You need to get out of the JibbyHole and start looking at this using commonsense like your name is suggesting.
What’s the difference between the chinese model of financing for all infrastructure compared to our current government raising billions and billions of bonds to support NAP?
They are both debt. the difference is one can be paid off because it works, one doesnt. So the next time before you jibbyinandoutofeverydamthing, pls think abit.
I support Proton in silent. I dun care who the Boss
Before the end of 2020 also Game Over already. What plan again? Habisla!!
Fake news again. But in the end, Proton will always follow the right direction. So if Proton sales overtakes Perodua sales, you can start to cry and it will be game over to you
Bad decision.. Save save $$ and cancelled many projects here.. But invest in foreign country and creating jobs elsewhere..??
Only boleh Govt in boleh decision making in boleh land..
Still cleaning out the shits of tt 61year toilet. LOL
Do you have comprehension problem? The article clearly stated the Pakistanis own and operate the plant, which means they are forming out the money. I sure hope you boleh baca dan faham betul2 before bashing.
China and Pakistan , well what can I say?
P1 n p2 sucks.. I want my Honda Brio..
For those who are interested, here is a list of all overseas Proton production plants, that I’m aware of (tangible only) ;
1. VinaStar Motors Corporation (VMC)
About : Vietnam, 1990s, JV with Mitsubishi
CKD assembly : Wira
Status : Dormant stake
2. Proton Pilipinas Corporation (PPC)
About : Philippines, 1990s
CKD assembly : Wira
Status : Shut down after 1998 financial crisis
3. Zagross Khodro
About : Iran, 2000s
CKD assembly : Wira, GEN-2
Status : Presumed victim of global sanctions on Iran
4. Zhejiang Youngman Lotus
About : China, 2000s, 2010s
CKD assembly : GEN-2, Persona (CM)
Status : Dormant after presumed bankruptcy of Youngman
5. PHP Automobiles
About : Bangladesh, 2010s
CKD assembly : Prevé, Saga (third gen.)
Status : Presumed active
6. Zhejiang Geely
About : China, 2010s
Manufacturing : X70
Status : Active
Thx Aero. Proton UK, Aussie and Spore ?
Never heard P1 have factories in those countries. Care to share the links?
And how many of them are actually operating?
How many years have they been dormant?
The car will be renamed Proton Gostan … in honor of its new host country…
you nak gostan pegi mana>
Gostan baliks 1st Madey era. Full of cronies & corruptions. Welkam back to the past!
Are we going to buy JF-17 from the Paskitan?
What to be proud of about this? Its basically a china company open up a factory in pakistan. Proton bukannya gov own anymore. Whats in the benefit for malaysian. The money will definity go back to geely china. Even wanna get 100k sales per year also very susah. This kilang sure tutup one later.Syiok sendiri people. Pathetic!
you mean only govt owned companies benefit malaysians? where did you go to school bro? firstly, geely doesnt even own majority share in proton, DRB does. on top of that.. proton hires around 10,000 malaysians.. malaysian vendors supply parts to proton.. and with tg.malim expanding to assemble more cars, that only means more jobs, and more business for local vendors.. the whole problem in the first place is political meddling in proton that messed it up. in less than 2 years after geely took over management control, i’ve seen more changes than the last 10 years of proton being a “GLC”.
2000 direct of employments haha? Its not malaysia national car anymore. Its up to you proton. But last time I heard that proton had its advance factory in Tanjung Malim.
Seronok betul.. Ini sbb aku undi PH. Aku nak peluang kerja wujud di pakistan..
Ohh… Warganegara IC2.0… patutle sapot PH….
Sad, Proton can only target 3rd world countries like Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh. They should target to sell to first world countries. Yes, the car cannot meet the emission and safety standards in many first world countries so work harder to achieve that!
Are Datsun, Dacia or even Geely sold in these ‘first world’ countries you meantion? Heck, is Daihatsu big in Europe? The strategy for Geely is clear. Volvo, Polestar, Lynk & Co for the Weestern markets. Geely to conquer China. Proton to build sales in Asia and maybe eventually go back to UK and Australia.
Love the name by the way. Very apt.