Proton delegation to visit Cairo to study local assembly

Daily News Egypt
4 Min Read
Egyptian ambassador to Kuala Lumpur Salah Elwassimy

Malaysian car brand Proton is preparing to send a delegation to Cairo to finalise measures to launch a large-scale project to manufacture its cars in the Egyptian market.

Egyptian ambassador to Kuala Lumpur Salah Elwassimy said Proton has decided to send a large team of technical specialists to Cairo at the beginning of April to hold meetings with representatives of feeder industries.

The meetings aim to obtain the necessary information to finalise the proceedings for Proton to launch a large-scale project to manufacture automobiles in Egypt, starting with 100,000 cars annually.

He added that the company’s vision to invest in Egypt includes launching a production line for its cars, and is based on maximising the Egyptian component ratio to more than 40%, so that it will depend on manufacturing, rather than assembly.

Proton also aims to take advantage of Egypt’s strategic location as a main gateway to the African market and surrounding countries.

He added that a delegation from the Malaysian company made ​​a preliminary visit to Cairo in February and held meetings with the relevant officials to discuss their intent to invest in Egypt in the field of manufacturing and exporting vehicles. The delegation also visited a number of production lines.

Ezz Elarab Automotive, the agent for Proton in Egypt, announced that the local assembly of the cars will depend on launching a government strategy for the automotive industry, adding that Proton is yet to resolve the decision of manufacturing in Egypt.

Key players in the automotive sector have long called for the establishment of a unified strategy governing the industry. Officials have called for the strategy to be launched to incentivise local production and the use of more domestically produced components in the assembly of cars locally to give the industry a boost.

According to an official source in the Chamber of Engineering Industries, the chamber will meet the company’s delegation to research methods for local assembly and manufacturing, and to identify the incentives to begin manufacturing in Egypt.

The delay in launching the government’s automotive industry strategy may cause Egypt to lose investment opportunities from global auto companies, the source added.

The source expressed fears that the company’s delegation visit will end unproductively, as did many other international companies’ visits to Egypt. He noted that he expected that the company will not resolve its decision regarding manufacturing cars without identifying the incentives provided by the government to automotive industry investors.

Proton has raised prices for its Gen 2 and Persona models for the second consecutive month in March. The car prices saw an EGP 6,100 increase, recording EGP 135,000 for Gen 2 with the automatic transmission, and EGP 129,000 for manual transmission. The Persona class A retails at between EGP 129,000 and EGP 135,000.

The Malaysian brand has seen major surges in the prices of its cars in the past month, with Ezz Elarab having previously increased the prices of all Gen 2 and Persona categories by EGP 10,000.

TAGGED:
Share This Article
Leave a comment