As the debate about the status of our national carmaker rages on, I believe that we've missed the point that there are other carmakers beside Proton and Perodua in Malaysia. These companies have their manufacturing facilities using high content of locally-made components.

I am referring to Volvo, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai, all of which have facilities in Malaysia and they produce cars with high local content. While Dr Mahathir Mohamad questions the merit of Naza as a national car and Shahrir Samad urges the reduction of minimum local content to 40% for national cars, I believe that we should free these carmakers from such constraints, be they 40% or 90%.

We should let these carmakers make their own decisions on where to buy their components, be it local or from other countries. Restriction in local content will slow the adoption of new technologies and render these carmakers uncompetitive in the long run.

The last thing we want is that Proton or Perodua produce cars that are two to three years behind their competitors. Being able to outsource their components might give these carmakers a competitive advantage and to enable them to reduce costs and pass on the savings to customers in the form of competitive pricing and good quality.

Local component manufacturers already produce high-quality products and by opening the market, they will have to market their capability to other global car manufacturers. More investment would be ploughed into component manufacturing to keep up with the competition.

These days, most global car brands outsource their components procurement from wherever the price and quality is advantageous. Some Honda brands are made in the US and Europe, while more and more Toyota components are being made in Thailand.

Recently Toyota made an agreement to buy electric motors for hybrid cars from Hitachi. These example shows that the concept of national car with local content is out of date. Let's invest in Proton, Perodua, Volvo, Hyundai, Naza-Kia and other equally and let their management maximise the companies' values.

Who knows one of these days, our local car could become a global brand.