Yesterday’s revelation that Goodyear was to shut its manufacturing unit in Shah Alam took everybody unexpectedly, the plant having been a mainstay of the automotive manufacturing scene for the previous 52 years. The transfer sparked furore over giant multinational companies persevering with to maneuver manufacturing away from Malaysia, most notably incomes a rebuke from Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.
The previous minister of worldwide commerce and trade (MITI) took to Fb to voice her dismay, saying that it was a shock to learn the information. She additionally urged the federal government to right away reply to such developments. “Whereas touting across the billions of potential funding and expectations being mooted and mentioned, it’s so necessary that industrial and enterprise entities that are already right here don’t shut store and depart for different international locations.”
Rafidah added that the federal government wants to notice the quantity of firms which have shut down their Malaysian operations and perceive why they did so. “[Ask] the place have they moved to [and] why have they stopped operations in Malaysia; analyse what had been their push components which drove them to close down and, so as to add insult to harm, relocate elsewhere.”
It’s necessary to make a “severe and element[ed]” evaluation on the push components, as they’re necessary to grasp what present traders discover “untenable” about persevering with to function right here, Rafidah mentioned. She added that it might be pointless to ask the what-ifs as soon as they’re gone.
Rafidah mentioned the federal government should additionally do the background work in analysing future memorandums of understanding (MoU) with future traders, ensuring that they’re severe with their plans and land acquisitions earlier than signing them. That is necessary to make Malaysia the placement of alternative for each home and international traders, she added.
The choice to shut the Shah Alam plant was introduced by Goodyear Asia Pacific president Nathaniel Madarang in a leaked inner memo. In it, he mentioned that the “troublesome however needed determination” was made as a part of the American tyre producer’s Goodyear Ahead plan to scale back prices by US$1 billion (RM4.7 billion). The closure, efficient June 30, will lead to roughly 550 job cuts within the nation.
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