Proton Holdings confirmed yesterday that it is close to identifying a suitable local partner for a car assembly joint venture in India.
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Proton’s managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir told local reporters that it is looking to assemble vehicles in either Mumbai or Chennai.
“We expect to finalise a joint venture agreement in early 2010, with assembly operations starting up 12-14 months later”, he said. “A Lotus Engineering design centre will be set up in either Chennai or Mumbai early next year”.
He added “local sourcing will allow us to reduce costs by 30% compared with importing parts from Malaysia. Also, setting up an R&D centre in India will allows us to do high-end engineering work cost-effectively”.
Tony Pugliese
