KUALA LUMPUR: The production and export of Malaysian-made vehicle parts and components are just as important as vehicle production and introduction of new models, says Minister of International Trade and Industry (Miti) Datuk Darell Leiking.
He said together with top-level vehicle production capability, the production and export of locally-made vehicle parts and components deserved to have equal growth.
“It creates more business and career opportunities for Malaysians in the high-value automotive chain and they are essentially the elements that define the final products,” he said.
Darell said the manufacturing of parts and components was a key target sector to stimulate local development in science, technology and engineering adoption, especially among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
This is due to the diversity of manufacturing processes, multiplicity of specialisation and varying levels of complexity involved in parts and components production, compared to vehicle assembly.
He also emphasised the importance of continuous growth in the capacities and capabilities of Malaysian automotive manufacturers to adopt the current trend and direction which was towards new mobility products and ownership solutions.
“While Miti is working hard to address concerns among certain quarters of the industry on our readiness to develop high-technology products such as autonomous technology, we cannot deny that such disruption will eventually render our current capabilities obsolete in the future.
“The only way forward is a fully concerted effort from the industry, government and research sectors to devise new solutions to ensure we reach the appropriate levels of compliance to global market demand,” Darell said.
Meanwhile, businesses are urged to take part in government initiatives such as product and process design.
Darell said the government had strengthened the capacities of Malaysian parts and components suppliers, particularly in implementing Lean Production Systems (LPS) practices within most production lines of the local automotive chain, through government programmes formulated by the Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii).
For the first half of this year, Malaysia’s parts and components industry achieved 52 per cent of its full-year target of RM13 billion set at the beginning of the year.
The sector has also displayed massive growth in exports since 2014, growing from RM4.7 billion to RM12.1 billion last year.