First national car manufacturer Proton Holdings Bhd is not shifting its entire manufacturing plant in Shah Alam to Proton City in Tanjung Malim.

The Proton cars that are currently produced in Shah Alam will continue to be produced there, according to Proton’s sector head for technical operations for Shah Alam and Tanjung Malim plants, Abdul Rashid Musa.

NONE Yesterday in Tanjung Malim, Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir (right) was reported as saying that the state government would revive plans to develop the township into the national automotive hub within the next five years.

                

Zambry also said Proton would move its manufacturing operations in stages from Shah Alam to the Tanjung Malim plant.

Abdul Rashid told Bernama that only future Proton models would be considered to be manufactured at the Tanjung Malim plant.

“This is to optimise the utilisation of the capacity of the state-of-the-art Proton plant in Tanjung Malim in order to achieve economies of scale, which is currently operating at less than half of its capacity,” he said.

He added that this would further enhance Proton’s operational effectiveness and efficiency.

The Proton plant in Tanjung Malim which was opened in August 2004 is five times bigger, with 517ha of land, compared to the Shah Alam plant which sits on 101ha of land.

The Shah Alam plant currently produces the Saga, Satria Neo R3, Exora and Inspira, while the Gen 2 (for export), Persona and Preve are manufactured at the Tanjung Malim plant.

According to Zambry, he had met with the Proton management and following several discussions, the company had decided to revive the Proton City.

He said the national automotive hub was expected to bring substantial impact to Perak’s economy within five years.

Zambry said in the state’s development plans, Tanjung Malim's development would complement that of the Klang Valley, as the same had happened with Seremban and Negri Sembilan.

Proton is investing between RM1 billion to RM2 billion under its restructuring plan for Proton City over the next four to five years.

- Bernama