KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there is nothing wrong with Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah) and its subsidiary SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd being involved in the third national car project, as they are not government entities.
The prime minister said that if Khazanah is interested, they are welcome to invest in the project.
"If there are companies in Khazanah which are interested, they, too, can invest and SilTerra (could) produce microchips used by cars, planes and rockets.
"After all, Khazanah is not (part of the) government, it is private. So it's free to run a business," he told a media conference after chairing Pakatan Harapan's presidential council meeting at Yayasan Al-Bukhary here today.
He said this in response to a question raised by MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong who asked whether SilTerra would use public funds to invest in the third national car project.
A local automotive portal had reported that SilTerra will be involved in the national car 3.0 project.
The company, based in Kulim Technology Park, Kedah, produces semiconductor chips used in Apple products.
According to the report, Johor-based company Composites Technology Research Malaysia Sdn Bhd, specialising in the production of composite materials, will also be involved in the third national car project.
The project was announced by the prime minister in June, and he has since said that the government will be ready to launch the third national car by 2020.