Minister of International Trade and Industry Muhyiddin Yassin today revealed that Approved Permits (APs) policy will stay for the time being.

muhyiddin kawasaki eu ap 100608 02 "We are not changing it at the moment as far as the AP issuance policy is concerned," he told the press conference after the opening ceremony of Kawasaki's new state plant in Shah Alam today.

APs were first issued in 1988 to foreign cars and motorbikes as a means to regulate the number of vehicles imported into Malaysia.

This allowed for an artificial market to be created for Malaysia's own car companies.

In 2006, the government had announced that they would remove the policy by 2010.

However, the minister said that his ministry is currently preparing to undertake study to look at the performances of the permits holders which have bumiputera status.

He added, that audit forms have been distributed to the companies and will be submitted to AP committee.

Muhyiddin further explained that the move would enable the ministry to appoint a consultant to evaluate the performance of the companies.

"It is in the view of how much they have fared for the last 20 years and how they have improved their performances more than just selling and producing vehicles," he said.

The minister also hoped that the trading companies could move into "a higher plane of development" if the government could help them in terms of financing.

He however conceded that the current policy of AP is not in line with the rules World Trade Organisation (WTO) but he assured that the government would come to a decision later as to how long they would keep the policy.

"In order to do that, we have to get them ready so that they would be able to stand on their own without relying on the policy," he said, adding that this would come at the later stage when the government has to decide when to totally scrap it.

APs could stay for another 10 to 11 years

Muhyiddin added that APs could be sustained for another 10 to 11 years so the permit holders could be prepared to face local competition.

"We hope that by 2020, whoever wants to import, they can import and they are free to do their business," he said.

He later explained that the companies who had a headway for 30 years before the policy removal would have a strong base by the time the policy is removed.

The minister further stressed that the government has still yet to decide on the changing of the policy.

The AP issue became a major controversy in 2005 when former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed that the policy was affecting national carmaker Proton.