Dr M: Govt group MIGHT can help people understand importance of third national car

PUTRAJAYA (Bernama): The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology or MIGHT can highlight how a third national car is important to spur development and build the nation.

According to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad, MIGHT can play a big part in explaining the proposal to the people and also support other Malaysian industries to create a well-balanced economy.

‘'We have been given a briefing and I think MIGHT can play a big role, to explain to people and to support industries as industries can grow only when people accept it,'' he during an exclusive interview with The Third Age Media Association and Bernama News Channel (BNC) recently at  the Perdana Leadership Foundation here Saturday (Sept 15).

Established in 1993, MIGHT, which is under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department, plays a role in consensus building and Industry-Government partnerships in high technology.

Dr Mahathir explained that being consumers, people will find it hard to understand the need to encourage local industries to grow, which is essential to create new job opportunities and also to increase export capabilities to other countries.

With that, he also said, the government has to think about the country's development, including the capacity to produce things such as the third national car.

‘'The government feels the need to acquire engineering capability which means that we have to produce and manufacture for ourselves so that goods can be sold to other countries, where there can be an inflow of money. 

“Outflow money is very bad for the country, that's the government way of thinking,'' he added.

Dr Mahathir also urged Malaysians to look at countries like Japan, South Korea and China, which are very well known for engineering capabilities and are more keen to produce things and export them, which allows them to grow well economically.

On June 11, he revealed in Japan, at the 24th Nikkei Conference on the Future of Asia, that the government plans to work on a new national car, the third after Proton and Perodua.

Acknowledging that some Malaysians did not respond positively to his suggestion, Dr Mahathir had said before that his goal had always been to increase the engineering capacity of the country and turn Malaysia into a country of producers instead of consumers. - Bernama