Yesterday’s revelation that Goodyear was to shut its manufacturing facility in Shah Alam took everybody without warning, the plant having been a mainstay of the automotive manufacturing scene for the previous 52 years. The transfer sparked furore over massive 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 business (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 instantly reply to such developments. “Whereas touting across the billions of potential funding and expectations being mooted and mentioned, it’s so essential that industrial and enterprise entities that are already right here don’t shut store and go away 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 damage, relocate elsewhere.”

It’s essential to make a “critical and element[ed]” evaluation on the push components, as they’re essential to know what present buyers discover “untenable” about persevering with to function right here, Rafidah stated. She added that it will be pointless to ask the what-ifs as soon as they’re gone.

Rafidah stated the federal government should additionally do the background work in analysing future memorandums of understanding (MoU) with future buyers, ensuring that they’re critical with their plans and land acquisitions earlier than signing them. That is essential to make Malaysia the placement of alternative for each home and overseas buyers, she added.

The choice to shut the Shah Alam plant was introduced by Goodyear Asia Pacific president Nathaniel Madarang in a leaked inside memo. In it, he stated that the “tough however essential resolution” was made as a part of the American tyre producer’s Goodyear Ahead plan to cut back prices by US$1 billion (RM4.7 billion). The closure, efficient June 30, will end in roughly 550 job cuts within the nation.

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