IT is simply not good enough for Malaysia to rest on its laurels and depend solely on growing its total industry volume (TIV) in order to turn itself into an automotive manufacturing hub in Asean.
The numbers are looking rosy. The Malaysian Automotive Institute (MAI), an agency under the International Trade and Industry Ministry, had projected that Malaysian TIV could hit one million units by 2020. In turn, this will create better economies of scale, boost the country's competitiveness and steer it in the right path to become the region's manufacturing hub, an aspiration that the country is currently in pursuit of. Still, much more needs to be done.