Li Shufu meets with Malaysia’s Prime Minister to talk about direction of Proton

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Li Shufu, chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group had a friendly talk up to 100 minutes with Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on June 25, along with Li Donghui, executive vice president of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, major investors and managing director of DRB-Hicom, parent company of Proton, aiming to jointly discuss the direction of Proton.

According to Malaysian media, as early as on June 22, Mahathir had met with Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, who holds a 55.93% stake in DRB-Hicom, officials of DRB-Hicom Bhd group as well as top officials from Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, to discuss the future development of Malaysian auto industry and Proton.

On June 25, Li Shufu also sent a Chinese-characteristic gift to Mahathir, delivering his wish of win-win cooperation to the prime minister.

Li Shufu also elaborated the features and intelligent interconnected functions of the new Proton SUV (based on the Geely Boyue) to Mahathir. According to Geely, Mahathir gave the new Proton SUV thumbs up after test drive. He spoke highly of the SUV's quality, intelligent connectivity, cutting-edge technologies and the silence of its engine, added that the model will perfectly meet Malaysian market demands.

Mahathir also stated that Geely can manage Proton, and he also hoped Geely can bring more competitive parts suppliers in Malaysia to help boost the development of Malaysian parts supplier. Li Shufu reached a consensus with Mahathir in this issue.

Half a month ago, Mahathir, who is also the founder of Proton, stated that Malaysia would like to partner with Japan and South Korea to found a new auto brand that will be wholly owned by Malaysia. Meanwhile, another negative view spread out that Proton has been sold out and never belongs to Malaysia any more. These words exert great pressure to Li Shufu and his team.

Li Shufu's visit to Malaysia after Proton was acquired by Geely a year ago can be regarded as an urgent salvage to Proton, because Li Shufu brought Proton a new SUV model, which will be based on the Geely Boyue with Geely's technologies.

Through the meeting between Li Shufu and Mahathir, Geely prioritized to restrike Mahathir's confidence that Geely is capable of reviving Proton.

Under the leadership of Li Chunrong, CEO of Proton, Proton has formulated an all-new strategic target. It is said that the automaker is ambitious to lead the Malaysian auto market once again and aims to achieve an annual production capacity of 400,000 units by 2027.