Proton Case

One of the important factors to consider is the presence of AFTA or ASEAN Free Trade Area. Currently, most of ASEAN region are free trade or 96% of the entire ASEAN trade. AFTA was established in January of 1992 in order to eliminate tariff barriers among the Southeast Asian countries. It planned to reduce tariffs to zero to 5% in 15 years among the six nations through a common effective preferential tariff (Ghani & Zainuddin 2008). Because Malaysia has two national carmakers which are Proton and Perodua, and the government wants to protect their interests. Unfortunately, the said development could prove to be a temporary solution. If we are going to check on the high selling prices of the national cars of Malaysia because of high production costs and lack of vendor efficiency, there is a big possibility that the local market will be ruled by imported cars. As a result, there will be increase in the number of the vehicles on the road and there will be a glut of used cars in the market, because people will tend to trade their cars for cheaper and imported brands (Frost & Sullivan 2002). On the other hand, the issue regarding the environment is vital because it is considered as one of the most talk about topics in the world. The environmental regulation in Malaysia can be traced back during the colonialism of British which introduced the environmental standards about the mineral and agricultural resources to Europe.

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