The Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii), China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC), DRB-HICOM and Proton today signed MoUs on a strategic cooperation to further the development of the country’s automotive industry by making Malaysia the next-generation vehicle (NxGV) hub in the region.
The move will see new facilities being built in the country, and these will include the establishment of an Autonomous, Automated and Connected Vehicle (AACV) test bed in Cyberjaya and a National Automotive Testing Centre (NATC) in Tanjung Malim.
These are expected to be ready by 2023, according to MARii CEO Datuk Madani Sahari. He said the cost of development will be shared by the government and the private sector, with the bulk of funding expected to come from the latter.
Both MARii and CATARC will focus on the establishment of technical standards and the construction of NxGV testing facilities within the test centre to enhance domestic capabilities in the development and testing of such vehicles within the ASEAN region.
“As testing and homologation is a logistically sensitive item in the development of any vehicle, we are working to offer full-fledged testing solutions according to latest NxGV technology developments, in line with safety regulations, policies and standards. This MoU with CATARC is an important milestone for Malaysia in its progress to be a NxGV hub in the ASEAN region,” said Madani.
The cooperation between Proton and CATARC meanwhile aims to enable the national carmaker to collaborate with and leverage on the latter’s research and development facilities, especially in the areas of testing related activities, accelerating the automaker’s incorporation of new technologies in line with the country’s NxGV aspirations.
“This collaboration will also unlock access to the ASEAN market, and the expertise of our business, especially in terms of testing and certification, could be shared to the Malaysian and ASEAN automotive industries in the foreseeable future,” said CATARC GM Zhou Hua.
Separately, MARii and DRB-HICOM inked an agreement to establish academic and relevant human capital development programmes, in order to enhance the country’s automotive workforce. Both parties will collaborate to establish new programs in line with industry demands, including value chain development and market expansion.
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Now this is the kind of development partnerships and R&D that we want to see from our national carmakers. Not like the other rebadging job that has been continuously going on for 25 years. They learnt nothing and yet all profits goes back to Japan leaving us with nothing.
Kudos to Proton for this tie up!
MoUs. Lol. Look closely at the docs in the pic. One page.
I hope Proton does not repeat the same Game Over mistake again. Don’t later after signed the contract, years later suddenly cut ties with them.
Proton follows thru with what they said. Unlike Perodua that said they will be selling Kenari Hybrid in 2003 but until today habuk hybrid pun tarak. The real Game Over is Perodua.
The MoUs are a good first step. The point is to expand the contacts and explore further the tie ins. If this is successful, it could be a game changer in regional automotive test. No more all the nonsense of using suspicious unknown variants for the crash testing (anyone managed to buy the G-Spec variant for Aruz that was used for Miros ASEAN NCAP test?).
It is easy to do MOU. MOU is just a piece of signed paper.
Now, can you make it happen? I hope its not gonna be another round of feel-good-talk and nothing else.
What was MARii establishment objectives vs what are they doing now? Where is NAP ie promises after promises but deliver nothing ..
The more important question.
What has this Madani bloke done all this time? As far as I know, not much other than making press statements. I remember this guy famously predicting a feel good 750K + TIV when the market barely struggled to 600k.
Back in 2014, He also famously predicted that we will have sub-100k EV by 2017. (maybe he meant those comos leased cars….LOL)
What sort of analyst can be off by so much?
Don’t forget this guy also supported scrapping your old cars.
all the while, Thailand is making massive progress for the past decades, and even Vietnam is starting a move.
Regardless of his faults, he is still far more grounded to reality than our flying car -I mean, drone- dreamingedge minister.
MOU is only publicity to improve the company image.
Malaysia did not design a car and I don’t see Malaysia is applicable to automotive industry anymore. We are only the user
Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are better positionings in the world automotive industry.
A small step for a bigger thing in near future. They should include Petronas as well on liquid engineering.
A positive development. I hope it is a sign of things to come. John Mansfield
madakni this fella again? go die lah
I wonder whether this Madani guy is knows what he’s doing or not..he sounds like all talk but no walk