Business

Friday November 20, 2009

Room to improve safety, standards of vehicle

By EDY SARIF


KUALA LUMPUR: Glass’s Information Services Pty Ltd, a leading provider of data, solutions and business intelligence services for the Australian automotive community, believes that safety and standards of vehicles in Malaysia still have room for improvement.

Managing director Santo Amoddio said although the recent review of the National Automotive Policy (NAP) did touch on the issue of safety and standards of vehicles, more needed to be done to improve the quality of vehicles manufactured in Malaysia for the safety of users.

“I would also like to touch on the issue of tariffs for vehicles imported from the international market where there seems to be no changes at all under this reviewed NAP.

“Although it is a good thing to have the tariffs to protect local car manufacturers, there will be disadvantages to both manufacturers and consumers,” he told StarBiz on the sidelines of the National Automotive Policy Forum – Implications and Opportunities yesterday.

He said with these tariffs in place, local carmakers might not be more competitive in producing much higher standards of cars that could compete with international players.

“Consumers will then get the impact of having to buy cars that may be not in the higher standards although we do understand that the tariffs is also a source of income for the Government,” he said.

Meanwhile, Insurance Services Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Carl Rajendram hoped both automotive players and insurers would continue to work together to uplift the standard of the local automotive industry.

“We need to continue educating the consumers on the safety and standard of the vehicles that they are going to buy or using currently,” he said.

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