ECONOMIST Jomo Kwame Sundaram called for critics of the the third national car project, slated to begin in 2020, to engage in more “intelligent” debate instead of resorting to “caricaturising”.

Jomo, a former Council of Eminent Persons member, told an economics forum in Kuala Lumpur tonight that critics should look beyond losses suffered by Proton, the first national car set up in 1983 by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Lagging sales had ultimately led to China’s Geely Holdings acquiring a 49.9% stake in Proton in September last year.

“We have not really come to grips with automation,” said the former United Nations assistant secretary-general and visiting fellow at the Khazanah Research Institute (KRI).

“I think it is a very important debate. We say, ‘We’ve already lost so much money on Proton, let’s not lose any more money’. That’s one way to look at it.

“We have to think of this and we need have to have an intelligent debate about this. To raise the issues and to come up with alternatives. Not to caricaturise and to say we lost a lot of money and we let us not concern about this.”

He said Malaysia dedicated only 23.3% of its economy in 2016 to manufacturing, a drop of 10% from its peak in 2000.

“Let us consider how do we industralise moving forward. That is the challenge before us because without an industrial policy it would be difficult reindustralise and without industralisation it would be difficult to modernise and aspire for higher things we can do for ourselves as a developing nation,” he said.

Jomo said ,however, that he understood the criticism against another national car: “Another reason why I would be very critical of the idea is that we have the highest car ownership per capita in the world.”

“More than the United States. More than Australians. We are the highest the world. Is that the way we want to go? I don’t think so.

“And the world has changed. Germany now is planning for a post-automobile age.”

Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Yusof said recently that the current government is confident that the move could revitalise the national automotive industry.

“In the past, we tried to grow the automotive industry by creating our own car, but obviously, we need to work on the timeline.

“This had put a lot of challenges that we see today where Proton has been compromised,” he said.

Dr Mahathir reaffirmed his aspiration of building the third national car project during his visit to Japan in June after Pakatan Harapan won the 14th general election on May 9 this year.

The prime minister was reported as saying that the government was looking at building the national car 3.0 after Proton ,his brainchild, forged a strategic partnership with Geely in May last year.

The automotive sector contributed 4% to the country’s gross domestic product in 2017. – August 27, 2018.