Shah Alam, 23 February 2009 - Proton Holdings Bhd has expressed its strong support of the Government proposed scrapping policy to allow car owners to exchange their cars in return for a discount to buy a new car.

Proton Managing Director Dato’ Hj Syed Zainal Abidin bin Syed Mohamed Tahir said in any developed countries, scrapping policy has been used in many other developed countries to ensure a sustainable industry.

“This policy is an important tool in the “ecosystem” of the automotive industry where it could help the industry to not only dispose of old cars but to stimulate growth in the industry, ” said Dato’ Syed Zainal Abidin

The policy augurs well for development of the industry which is facing one of the toughest challenges in decades. Other countries already implementing similar policy are Japan and Singapore.

One of the additional benefit of the policy is that it will allow old cars to be disposed of more responsibly, thus avoiding he cars becoming environmental problems.

Proton has implemented an exchange programme since November 2007 that allows its
customers to trade their old cars in exchange for a discount on new purchase of cars such as Gen2, Perdana and Satria Neo.

Among the terms and conditions are that the car has to be registered with Road Transport
Department in the Peninsular Malaysia and that it must be operational and functional. Once surrendered to Proton Edar, the car cannot be returned.

As at January 2009, nearly 1,700 Proton cars have been purchased through the programme.