Only 11 countries out of the 146 World Trade Organisation members can design and manufacture a vehicle from the ground up with the latest technology, meeting world standards. In 2002, Malaysia became the 11th country through Proton.

Pretty impressive. But wait, have a look at some numbers. Here's a list of major car companies, and the money they generated in year 2004. All figures in US dollars (millions) and taken from Fortune 500 , 2005.

Daimler Chrysler (Germany) 176,687

Toyota Motor (Japan) 172,616.32

Ford Motor (US) 172,233

Volkswagen (Germany) 110,648

Nissan Motors (Japan) 79,799

BMW (Germany) 55,142

Hyundai Motor (South Korea) 46,358

Fiat (Italy) 59,972

To give you an idea how big these companies are, Petronas, Malaysia's largest corporation, only generated US$36,064 million in revenue in 2004. Now have a look at Proton's figure (for year 2003, Source 2004 DS100, DinarStandard.com):

Proton (Malaysia) 2,439

It's not difficult to see that the big boys are in a completely different league. If Proton and the Malaysian government are actually still thinking that with some protection, Proton will actually be able to join the big league and help create a healthy auto industry in Malaysia, then they should probably look at the competitors and think again.

Because it is going take a lot of time and a lot of money for Proton to play catch-up. This is time and money that Malaysians and the Malaysian government cannot afford to be wasted on Proton.

There are alternatives to making cars. Many of the other 135 other countries in the World Trade Organisation have figured that out.