In an announcement today, the Malaysian government has approved national carmaker Proton’s application for a soft loan of RM1.5 billion. It’s said that this would help the company pay its vendors for components already supplied.
The loan comes with strings attached, of course. International Trade and Industries (MITI) minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said that the government has set several conditions for Proton to meet, including the company having to “convince the government” of its new business model.
Aside from the mandatory turnaround plan, Proton will also have to provide a strategic plan to expand its domestic and international markets. “A special task force will be set up and it will be led by Pemandu chief executive Datuk Seri Idris Jala. This team will overlook Proton’s transformation plan and to ensure that it is successful,” Mustapa told the New Straits Times.
The said task force will have six representatives – one each from the Finance Ministry, International Trade and Industries Ministry and Economic Planning Unit (EPU), plus three from the private sector, which will be identified at a later date.
Mustapa also mentioned that the government is aware that the automotive industry is a “strategic industry,” and that Proton currently employs around 12,000 employees, with over 50,000 more tied to its vendor companies.
Why waste money to save Proton. Any future hope for Proton? Tutup kedai lah.
To sustain the income of 62k rakyat la. If not, they will jobless, thus they will have no income to support all tauke’s business, when tauke profit decrease, economy collapse la.. aiyaa…
Kenapa Syed Mokhtar nak pinjam duit gomen?
yay… more money down the toilet…
Revival of Tiara, Juara, Arena?
ha ha ha. When mustapa came out with his statement about Proton not being viable business, I knew that was just drama lah for the rakyat. That is just to excite the rakyat, to show the rakyat that Government is neutral and Government also cannot take all this AP issues as well as failing Proton.
This is the Government modus operandi. For years they have been doing this. They will send one minister to shoot and condemn the Government in a drama. Then another minister will come and shoot the first minister.
In this case, Mustapa was doing a drama for the rakyat. Many got excited. Even Tun also got excited. PEDA president also got super excited. But actually all big drama. It is called Drama Minggu Ini, a show in the 70s and 80s.
The soft loan as we know, will never come back. No such thing as coming back lah. Everybody here commenting, all say it will be repaid back etc. Come on la, this is Malaysia, any loan to GLC or crony, namesake only loan. It is actually FREE money.
RM1.5 billion is just a drop in the ocean compared to what Proton has sucked from our LHDN coffers. Since inception, Proton has sucked over RM100 billion.
This RM1.5 billion is already a write off. Let’s see what we can do with this Rm1.5 billion….
1) About 100 orphanages with residents of 40 orphans each
2) About 100 extra fully fledged Government schools
3) About 1000 1Malaysia Kliniks to help the poor in Malaysia and give them free healthcare and medicines.
Do you think saving Proton is worth it?
What a joke again, why allow all fake story from Samy.
How can Idris Jala oversee Proton? He tried to turn around MAS also, he failed miserably. Now, MAS went bankrupt. Now, this same guy want to turn around Proton?
Seriously
I really hope it’s a good move. We can see some major positive efforts in last 3 years from Proton. People out their will easily rate Iriz is one of the best compact cars in 2015 and 2016. Myvi is just leading with the numbers. I really hope Proton can hire international designer and experience engineers from Europe or Japan and develop their upcoming models wisely.
They need to focus more on CUSTOMER SERVICE, GOOD PRICING and MODERN DESIGN. Please no more patriotic designs or so-called malaysian taste design. If you wanna go high and global, fix your car designs and learn from Hyundai or Kia.
Pinjam duit ini apa!!! Bila tak boleh bayar….hantar saja lebeh kerata tak boleh jual kepada semua kementerian. Siapa yang kena….rakyat…lah!!!
This is a car blog, however, recently we see so many political players here come talk something fake. Typically those who like to cucuk something that is not true. Shame.
AP system Cronies always get support from corrup”donation” BN… Billions of Rakyat tax payers money gone again !!! After 5 years still the same no improvement Proton AND Rakyat continue suffer less Safety with Expensive price car !!!
How annoying.
Today, any negative comments on Proton, you will get Dislike 10X or more. Proton and DRB hicom staff are on overdrive. All got strict instructions to dislike any negative comment.
They are so free in office. No work to do, all lepak and relaks. Instead of working hard and improving Proton, they sit and dislike and refresh pages over and over nd over again.
Can Mustapa, Tun, PEDA president and his goons, Azalina stop playing with the rakyat’s feeling? It is not fair you do charades and mess with people in Malaysia. All of us are suffering with high cost of living.
Malaysians have suffered too long with high car prices. Now, Azalina Minister came here to insult us yesterday saying car prices already dropped 30%.
Najib promised us 3 years ago that car prices will come down by 30%. Next election is 2018.
The problem in Malaysia is that, most car companies are indirectly owned by the Government of Malaysia. Go and see each car company, it is the Government or a GLC which is the majority shareholder.
So, the Government got no incentive to reduce car prices at all to ease the burden of the rakyat. the Ministers have a wonderful life. Each Minister swims in tens of millions of ringgit, if not billions. Although their official gaji is RM10k to RM25k, somehow, the Ministers have tens and even hundreds of million of ringgit.
They don’t know how the average Malaysian suffer. Lately every household is complainign that their TNB bills are RM500 to RM1000. Food is so pricey. Petrol is so high for an oil producing country. Even our Internet is one of the most expensive in the world.
Our Ministers don’t know how we suffer. They tell us to tanam jagung and tanam kangkung. Then even our PM has told us, don’t worry, can buy whole chicken for RM1. Infact, he said RM1 for whole chicken is sold everywhere in Malaysia and Najib himself buys this RM1 whole chicken to eat.
I have travelled all over Malaysia looking for this RM1 whole chicken. Can anyone here help me find this RM1 whole chicken please?
This hailat Muniandy still using saga till today and you see how much pain he got for no RV car. Buy sushi please.
Kenapa Syed Mokhtar nak pinjam duit gomen?
Kenapa tak nak guna duit gomen instead sendiri punya?
Aiya. This proton parked under drb le. Another drama. Initially, drb group md said drb had no plan to acquire proton. 2 weeks later, drb took over proton. Md also makan gaji. Decision from the top. Show your power in 2018. Meanwhile, keep seeing drama after drama.
Why did the Government lie to the people the past 8 years telling us Proton now Private when every year, Proton sapu billions quietly from Government?
Infact, Proton has been taking FREE money from Petronas since the beginning of time. Tun from one hand, he will take from Petronas, then other hand, give Proton FREE money
wow..can u pls proof p1 not settled its debt with govt?..proof your allegation as well…enlighten us pls!
Can u then proves p1 already settled all the debts?
Proton got no profit now. And will continue so for next few years. U still think they can pay the loan? Write off lor. Same case like MAS.
OMG…P1, pls dont waste time and money…just close it. Why need special task force to oversee, later in the end still will say OVERLOOK lah…puihhh
Sell it off to China company!
Stop wasting wang rakyat!
even sold to china..
this china-proton also ask for RnD..
n the gov will give…
Y?ask gov..
Long time i mentioned about letting China business to over proton..seriously it will do well..everyone will be happy..but TM will never let this happened..he is still with his old thinking. I wonder why some people angry when PM selling some stakes in the country to China man because China man is so damn good.
Yup. Sell it off. Even volvo also owned by china company
One of the loan condition should be:
Sack the designer!
Thanked for the loan. Najib now i will vote you . Like i said b4, u help Proton i will vote you
There goes our tax payer’s money..
It says “SOFT LOAN”, it means Proton has to pay back the G the RM1.5B in the future, are we to believe that?
Loan? Why beg Gov? go and get it from the banks lar.
any seriously they think they can pay it back? it is also an approved loan ti does not mean they will get it until they met MITI conditions.
Now all of us rakyat know what to do:
Boycott Proton!
Asalkan bukan Proton!
Gone with the wind
1. Shxt, another RM1.5 billion masuk pocket!
2. Since potong is under HICOM, why G still support?
3. Those MITI, MAI, LPPL are all talkok, sendiri cakap sendiri syok! Confirm they will claim objective achieved fter certain of period but actually nothing had done!
4. Continue tough life for rakyat!
Its a loan. You have to pay back.
Really? Do ever AP paying anything back to Govt? Except Rakyat tax payers money gone and gone again to AP system onwer bank accounts !!!
Proton really needs 12000 employees? how many cars protons produce last year?
They actually dont. ALl work oso they let vendor n consultant do.
All Proton staff care is go oversea makan angin, and the technician come during weekends for OT
They dont have efficiency dude. all lazy old man inside there. Go see urself.
When the nation is run by clowns, you get a circus with the world being yr spectators.
Youre the clown, pt is the circus and im laughing
Just sell price at rm10k,sure sell like pisang panas
Sh|t… Our money into other pockets again. After that, some idiots in here will claim nvr use ppl money. Close shop la… Geli tengkok proton nie!
Syed mokhtar got 8 billion net worth. Why still borrow 1.5 billion from tax payers?
cronies tetap cronies!…it will never change…
Just die already, Proton.
RM1.5B is gone to Toilet and will be given to Tun to undermine the gov. I bet Proton can not pay this back ans will beg for more. biggest mistake by MITI.
MITI is not making mistake. It is their nature .. Potong is their flesh & blood. …in their blood.. unseparatable. .. good bye BN
Bravo Proton!
I remember someone mentioned that Proton has never received a single cent from the government and that they pay taxes. Article was only a few days ago.
Proton paid fan boys pls stay out of this page. all Red negatives are by you.
Very bad news, in other words…stop buying Perodua will force G spend money to assist Proton.
Government approves after Tun M resign. Later after proton get the money they will call Tun back. What a nice kick on government butt!
IT is all MADANI’s Fault from MAI
Where is DRB Hicom in all of this?? How come no one is mentioning them..? Sting fishy msian style…
Last time… some people say Proton now in private hands, they’re not protected by govt.
Oops.
And a round and round we go, the circle will never break, Potong and Gomen are the same, can never close shop, there goes all the taxpayers money again for something worthless and nothing going to outcome to anything….still crapy cars being produce and by next year 1.5 billion would have been flush down as the potong cars will not sell at all locally let alone internationally….puih …Potong business plan wanna convince Gomen. A fail potong business plan for 30 years plus and Gomen thinks those moron’s in Potong can come up with something more convincing !!! Lelong semua I say !!! GOMEN can keep the money and use for its own, that would be a lot better knowing that all this money is going to waste !
Good move for proton.
New team management yg superb
New team? Same old team lah, only new manager, it does not mean the new manager is better than the old one. Wait and see lah.
Hahah still within the circle dude. They wont change. They really change if head start rolling. 5000 mass vss. That sound like turn around plan. Otherwise. Just buckle up and we see another round of soft loan after this 1.5 bil gone to the drain.
Time for Tun to join back PROTON, LOLzzzz
Aiya.. It is only 1.5 belion.
One company borrow more than that and never once make money also still breathing fine. :P
Whatever,they do, it will not affect us if we re not buying any new car including proton or imported cars.
I will continue using my fully paid second hand cars, and i refuse to buy any new cars, until i see structural changes to our automotive industries. Excise duty should be reduced, AP should be abolished, loan term should be around 3 yrs etc.
When the buying stop, the killing can too,
When we work together, we can win this.
Agreed fully. I use the same strategy, no new cars. If only can convince more people
Mana aero?? Mana kambingkong?? Sudah hilang kah??
Rm30 billion lost over 30 years, Rm 70 billion of wasted expenditure on passenger cars by the rakyat deprived of a free market. Worst scandal in the history of Malaysia. Now RM1.5 BIL to go down the drain. My prediction was Sep 2016 to go bankrupt. Proton has done itself worse than i thought. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Rm1.5 bil will last 6 months.
To those people talking about saving jobs – you are just plain STU… you didn’t learn from MAS bankruptcy? Just wish these ignorant supporters just leave the country, we’re much better without them.
now aero, donkeykong and others are using different names. they are still here. But today their memo from HQ is to dislike any negative comment and write good things about the RM1.5 billion. Tell people how it is well spent.
Good luck and all the best Proton. Those who keep bashing, they don’t even know the business strategies. Keep it up!
Business strategies?
Jahanam duit rakyat ada lah!
Bussiness strategy is to begging govt for rakyat money.
I thought Malaysia was about to collapse and GST saved us? Now got extra for Proton too?
Again? How many times of turnaround does Proton need????
Please bring back DSZ
With 1.5b and if they can’t find better car designer,
better start re-badging more cars again.
Why wanna get money from the govt when DRB Hicom 1619 is the parent company and a public listed company ?
Want money then have rights issue or go pledge your shares as to what Tony did for AirAsia. And the govt should not be held at ransom everytime the management of P1 screws up. Borrowing is like buying time only.
How are you gonna pay back that amount?
Seriously the management of P1 should be shown the door b4 any money is dispersed.
Cos trust me , nothing will change.
Totally agreed with u dude. Nothing change. Just a few months lifeline only. Soon they will request another softloan.
Tu la bila x baca artikel betul betul terus komen condemn proton. Soft loan tu pinjaman. Kerajaan memang banyak bantu Proton tetapi Proton juga dah bayar balik apa yang kerajaan beri bantuan sebelum ini dalam bentuk cukai. Dalam masa sama sudah bayar cukai yang banyak, proton juga banyak berjaya kerana berjaya memberikan peluang pekerjaan kepada ramai rakyat Malaysia, faham ker x faham
Juan you must be illiterate or just plain dumb.
Soft loan was given to pay off the vendors for goods already supplied plus to come out with a workable business turnaround plan.
Never was there mention of Proton paying back every single cent to the govt. via taxation
Don’t try to give some cock and bull story.
An inflated workforce is putting more pressure on P1″s P&L and the only way is to start slashing jobs and invest in automation.
So Juan please tell your friends and family to be prepared for the all eventualities to happen.
Sooner or later.
This is the kind of people Proton hired. That is why Proton is at this position right now. ZERO knowledge in business. ZERO knowledge in economy. Proton will has ZERO market share eventually if they still retain these employees, and continue hiring this kind.
You know why Protaik still want to retain these kind of ‘good for nothing’ employees. Because no other car showroom, not even kimchi showroom (don’t just say Honda and Toyota showroom) want to hire them.
As above…
Proton staff better shut up. Perabis duit jer tau
Inb4,
Task force will tell Proton to use THEIR vendor pulak.
And their vendor’s owner is indirectly owned by task force members.
Shitty loop it seems.
1. To be fair, I think Najib’s team did try to creat competitions, in order to bring down car prices, by giving incentives to certain models. We consumers however didn’t get much out of that.
2. Soft loan is a good name.
3. Did someones benefit own pockets by giving contracts to the preferred incapable vendors?
4. I support Lee Kuan Yew, with my eyes and brain.
Ah Pek M. You better kow tou and apologise to Najib for all your wrong doings and ask for forgiveness OK?? You also need to apologise to 32 million Malaysians about your lousy PET Proton and how you’re going to earn back our trust. We give you one final chance. Loser M!
To gain people’s trust is actually 100 times harder, but it just need 1 time of ‘bad experience’ to destroy people’s trust towards a company/brand or organisation (human nature, a bad news usually spread 10 times faster than a good news).
One final chance. No way, as there’s still no manual CFE and high possibility 1.6 manual Iriz will be discontinued (they want carbuyers to just go for their Punch CVTaik which will ‘shock’ and condemn anytime – just a matter of time according to Murphy’s Law and make drivers mad and cursing everyday)
Proton, jangan malu-malu by taking RM1.5 billion now.
Just wollap RM15 billion, then promise the sun, the moon, the star, say will do R&D, invest this, and that, etc….the actual fact, the top management spend lavishly of their lifestyle. The staffs will continue their lazy, tak apa attitude, as always…
After maybe 5 years, when money is finished, then create “sandiwara” (play good cop, bad cop thingy) again before the rakyat.
Then, govt will give you money (repeat, repeat, repeat, etc)
Anyway, Proton let me remind you there is KARMA waiting for you.
Then they will blame rakyat not patriotic enough buying their lousy product.
Soft loan that needs to be paid back to the Government? You know very well that Malaysians don’t pay back loans to government.
You know who you are PTPTN borrowers. Anyone who dislike this comment are one of those loan defaulters =P
Fuuuh relieved, this year was saved, next year we pinjam lagi ye.
Bloody hell…. a rescue package of RM1.5 billion? And just to pay debt? Such a risky poor quality loan but NO risk mitigation e.g. exchange with shares (like what happened to PSA Peugeot Citroen when French Govt and Dong Feng saved them a few years ago) or at least some collateral? What is the repayment info? Why dont make public?
Proton is experiencing severe cash flow crunch. But this catastrophe is not going to go away coz the people have stop buying Proton and will continue to shun Proton in the future.
Since when DRB or Proton are a Too Big Too Fail entities? Government should never done this. Proton is a private entity. They should never be given helicopter money like this. They should get the money elsewhere. Or they had tried to but no one willing to lend it to them? Memang muka tak tau malu rompak duit rakyat lagi.
Malaysia is sinking and G have the brain to throw away such huge sum of money to the drain. Silap2 sampai mati la Proton tak bayar… later write off mcm tu je… RM1.5 billion to delay the inevitable for a proven and repeating failure…. God damn it!
I think proton isn’t bleeding money but lotus. I think they should get rid of lotus once and for all.
Great comment. Will add a point here to complement it.
RM1.5 bil is part of a long history of money burned through the exhaust for Proton. The stupidest part for Malaysia is that we’ve seen this with so many companies, the latest being MAS. Bailout after bailout. Can you imagine how developed we would be if we had all those HUNDREDS of billions spent on bailouts and into the pockets of Syed Mokthar, Tajudin Ramli, etc.
For what? Patriotism?? This is what you pay for patriotism?? Burn money through failure after failure?
I don’t blame the gomen, I never blame the gomen.
I ONLY BLAME THE MALAYSIANS WHO support this nonsense!
Proton need a total revamp from head to toe to stand up and survive. The new leadership must be free from any political background and appointed based on merit and not connection, meaning that he must be a guy with well documented and proven track records in automative world. Forget maruah bangsa, if such a guy appointed to save Proton is not a local, so be it, as long as mission is done.
Sack all crony vendors and suppliers, reappoint new vendors that really make quality parts. Like I’ve said umpteen times before, people hate Proton because of their painful ownership experience, and these painful ownership experience are CAUSED by non other than lousy quality parts and very very bad QC of Proton vehicles. The quality issues has been going on for more than 15 years (since Waja) and is ultimately killing Proton. Proton has never been successful in tackling this quality issues because too many gaji buta vendors are protected by political masters from behind, now with DR. M gone, maybe they could be sacked. (finally and hopefully). If you evaluate Preve, Suprima and Iriz in isolation, these are very fine designed and developed vehicle, (lackluster powertrain asides of course) , it is the execution that is a BIG FLAW. Bad QC and lousy quality parts will ultimately put all design and development effort by Proton’s R&D team into the drain, because the quality is lousy, it will hurt consumer ownership experience in the end. The outcome is lousy ownership experience and low (or non existence) rate of 2nd time buyers, not to mention bad mouthing from the Malaysians who are well known as the best complainer in the world.
Bad things aside, Proton is the only home grown car manufacturer in South East Asia that can make a car from ground up, meaning chassic, powertrain and design development all by its own capacity. Sadly, Malaysia doesn’t have the market volume to justified its cost of doing so. Proton can only survive through exporting to the overseas in large volume. If Proton start selling more in overseas than in Malaysia, meaning that it is good enough to take on the global best. If that happens, many Malaysians will automatically and proudly own a Proton again. The question is, will all the points mentioned by me likely to happen, even with a glimer of chance? Sadly, based on the current situation and the embedded croynism and corruption culture of Malaysia, perhaps in my wildest dream. So the answer is most probably NO.
Is time for you to prove me wrong Proton. Deep down under many Malaysian’s heart, we still want you to be successful, prove to them. It’s your last call, stand tall or go south. Good luck.
This is just self fulfilled blinded national pride. The money can be used for so much more noble causes, real money towards real needs is just in the past. Very sad.
All gone by next week.
The only way for rakyat to teach BN and Proton is to stop buying its cars.
We worked hard pay taxes GST car excise duties but Proton easily being bailed out countless times. This is very unfair and sickening.
Boycott Proton!
Tak Nak Proton!
Just dont buy them. Buy perodua if not rich enough. They use daihatsu tech. Which owned by Toyota 100%. Or work a little harder buy urself honda or toyota. U will never make mistake with these 2 jap brands.
Perodua NAP tak protect je bang? Nampak tak, kutuk2 proton skit, puji2 perodua skit? Nampak tak?? Perodua NAP TAK PROTECK KE BANGGGGG????
Maybe we should all stop buying Proton. Let the Company collapse and be gone forever. Then there will no more further rakyat money to be wasted to sustain this company managed by lousy management.
Idris Jala to rescue Proton? Ha Ha Ha Ha!
He will sell the factory, lands and show it as big profits!
Looks good but never cure the actual cancer!
Totally agreed dude. Now rakyat already suffer enough with all gst thing. Time to show them the door out. They cant compete. Better close down.
In 3 years time, same story..no sales, blame rakyat x patriotik, bikin drama, many people will lose jobs, pinjam lagi Rm1.5 billion..repeat again every 3years
It’s a soft loan dear retarded Proton haters. Last loan Proton paid up till end.
Like they gonna pay that. with what. they even cant sell in their own market. Let alone other competitive market.
The buck stops here & should end here too.
Earlier this month MIT said to haveI injected 100 million to ease the burden of vendors and now we hear of 1.5 billion which also included paying off vendors for goods delivered.
This merry go round will never end cos vendors at the end of the day gets their money while Proton gets deeper & deeper into debt.
Bercukurlah !!!
I’m just wondering how much the salary for each of the 6 representatives…
PROTON! Please follow Perodua footstep and rebadge cars enough la. You are INCOMPETENT enough to in-house design your own car or engine la. Don’t waste the money given again and again and again.
10000 staff. Produce 100000 car per year. What a bloody waste.