He said the third national car project required a huge capital outlay. As such, it needed the involvement of the private sector.

However, he said the government had no problem in providing allocations to carry out research and development (R&D).

“To date, the government has no such allocation (to invest in building the third national car) under Budget 2019, except for R&D.

“What is wrong in us carrying out R&D if it can be utilised by Proton or DRB-Hicom … it’s not necessarily for the third national car.

“To build the third national car will require investments running into billions of US dollars, not just RM10 or RM20 million.

“We have to take this into consideration.

“For those attempting to make frivolous claims, we hope they don’t make assumptions based on inaccurate or baseless information,” he told reporters after opening the upgraded complaint counter at the Butterworth police station here today.

Lim was criticising the statements of various quarters, including the opposition, which accused the government of investing in the third national car project.