This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 8, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The ongoing review of the National Automotive Policy (NAP), which will look at new mobility pathways and trends such as driving patterns, will be completed by year end, according to Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming.

“For example, passenger car sales have been declining over the past several years. The longer-term trend is young people are driving less and I think with improvements in public transportation, the new policy will have to be adjusted along those lines.

“The NAP review is under Miti (international trade and industry ministry). So we are taking inputs from various parties and other ministries and we will update our policy and announce it when it’s ready. It should be by the end of the year,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event hosted by the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce yesterday.

He said the NAP review will also look into energy efficient vehicles, and hinted that the concept of the new or third national car would be along those lines.

“The prime minister’s conception of the new national car project is not to go back to Proton. The way to go is obviously to create energy efficient vehicles, including electric vehicles,” he said.

He also said the government welcomes input and ideas of cooperation, including from foreign parties, on the proposed third national car.

“We are open to all input and all ideas of cooperation. Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir has spoken about the idea of having an Asean car in cooperation with Indonesia. So there are definitely opportunities for us to explore with other players,” he said.

Earlier, Ong gave a presentation during the event entitled “Understanding the Ideas and Priorities of the Pakatan Harapan from a Sustainability Standpoint”, outlining the new Pakatan government’s sustainability goals.

This includes increasing the percentage of renewable energy (RE) in Malaysia’s energy mix from less than 3% currently to 20% by 2025, to upscale industries to adopt Industry 4.0, as well as to move from combustion engine to new mobility pathways.

“As part of striving for the 20% RE goal, we will not be including hydropower in its definition unlike what the previous government had done. In fact, when I checked the statistics from the Energy Commission, large-scale hydropower has never been included in RE,” he said, as he reiterated Pakatan’s stand not to include hydropower as such dams usually result in the surrounding forests being destroyed.

Ong explained that if hydropower were to be included, then the percentage would already be very close to 20% and the push for RE would not be there.

“Also, the industries that hydropower attracts may not be industries that we want to attract at this point in time because we want to have capital intensive, good paying jobs for locals and we don’t want industries that may be seen as more on the polluting side or have a reliance on foreign labour,” he added.