He added that the government wanted to give Malaysian carmakers an opportunity to control the local market.

“We are open to any cars including ‘Milo tins’ entering Malaysia.

“Anyone who makes cars can enter, but we cannot enter their markets,” he said during the question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat.

He said the government needed to re-look the policy so that foreign cars would not be able to easily enter Malaysian markets or control the local car market.

“We are looking at this,” he said in response to an additional question by Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang).

“We agree with free trade. But we find that even though the tax has been reduced on certain goods by developed countries, they have also imposed certain conditions such as Euro 5 (standards) for less carbon monoxide from cars.

“There are some countries that impose agriculture tax on cars. This also limits our sales to those countries.”

On shares held by foreign car companies, he said the government had agreed to work with foreign companies that were also experts in the automotive industry.

“We are ready to give them adequate shares according to our discussions. But we need to have a meaningful role to play in the management of these companies.”

He said this was because Malaysia had reached the level where it was able to produce its own cars, from designing to marketing.

However, he added that it would be difficult to master the engineering involved in the industry if Malaysia sold its car company to foreigners, leaving locals with no role to play in its management.

Earlier, Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) said many costs had come into play since the first national car was introduced 33 years ago. These included the cost of acquiring approved permits and import duties, he said.

He said although the industry had initially succeeded, it failed as Malaysia did not have the skills to compete with other car producers.

He also questioned the need for another national car.

To this, Mahathir said Proton had previously succeeded in penetrating both the local and overseas market.

“We sold 25,000 cars in the UK, among others,” he said, adding that sales had dipped due to a lack of exposure “because the previous government allowed all kinds of cars to come in without giving local cars an opportunity to enter their markets”.

Because of this, he said, Proton lost out to other cars which impacted the local car industry as it could not compete with foreign vehicles.

He said the success of local cars would depend on the policies of the government.

Mahathir also criticised the previous Barisan Nasional administration, saying it only decided to help Proton after the company was sold to a foreign entity.

“This looked as if we did not want to help locals manufacture cars as our focus was more on importing cars than manufacturing them,” he said.