Chery's expansion into Malaysia to create 4,000 high-paying, high-skilled jobs over the next five years

Chery has also chosen Malaysia as its regional hub for its right-hand drive vehicles in its Southeast Asia and Oceania markets, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz added.

Chinese automobile manufacturer Chery has marked its entry into Malaysia with the official launch of the Chery Tiggo 8 PRO and Omoda 5 sport utility vehicles on 6 July 2023 (Thursday).

With this, Chery has also chosen Malaysia as its regional hub for its right-hand drive (RHD) vehicles in its Southeast Asia and Oceania markets, according to Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz. 

"This marks a major milestone for Malaysia’s automotive sector where a renowned Chinese OEM has an established presence here," he said in his speech at the launch event.

"We also appreciate Chery’s strong commitment to inject an initial capital of RM170mn for their expansion strategies in Malaysia. MITI (Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry) and its agencies certainly look forward to helping you realisee your plans to establish activities such as regional testing, R&D for RHD and training & development under your Southeast Asia Technical Excellence."

As shared by the minister in a post following the launch, over the next five years, this expansion will provide 4,000 high-paying, high-skilled jobs for Malaysians.

The minister further noted that the entire automated industry ecosystem guarantees the employment of more than 700,000 people. Putting this into perspective, this accounts for more than 4.4% of the Malaysian workforce, contributes to around 4% to 5% of Malaysia's GDP on average every year, and contributed RM64.5bn to Malaysia's GDP in 2022.

In that vein, MITI hopes that the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030), which is set to be launched in August 2023 will be able to drive the growth of the country's automotive industry, targeting to generate RM104.2bn in GDP by 2032, thus dominating the ASEAN electric vehicle market which is worth US$2.7bn.

For context, the NIMP 2023 is expected to focus on:

• Advancing economic complexity;
• Facilitating digitisation and technology for the manufacturing sector;
• Pushing for carbon neutrality; and,
• Safeguarding economic security and inclusivity.

Five sectors have been identified to drive drive industrial transformation, as well as enhance the manufacturing and exports of more complex products to further develop Malaysia into a knowledge-based economy:

• Aerospace,
• chemicals and petrochemicals,
• digital economy,
• electrical and electronics, and
• pharmaceuticals

The focus on these industries is expected to propel Malaysia’s SMEs into high-yield and high-value market segments.

Lead image / Shutterstock