KUALA LUMPUR: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can boost its intra-trade through collaborations in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, said Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
He said that the EV industry provides member nations with opportunities to collaborate and participate in the EV supply chain ecosystem.
“ASEAN has a population of over 680 million, or approximately 8.5 per cent of the total global population.
“As the fifth largest economic bloc in the world with a combined gross domestic product of US$3.2 trillion, I believe Malaysia, along with ten other ASEAN member states and the organisation as a whole, can win this game,“ he said on Bernama TV today.
Investments in Malaysia’s EV industry have reached RM26.2 billion ringgit (US$5.4 billion) from 2018 to March 2023, and the number of registered EVs rose to more than 7,500 units as of September 2023 from over 3,400 last year.
According to reports, in 2019, ASEAN attracted US$2.1 billion worth of EV-related investments, and the amount rose to US$5.5 billion in 2020.
EV investment inflows in ASEAN then dropped to $2.7 billion in 2021 and in the following year, the amount of investments in Southeast Asia’s e-mobility sector increased to US$18.1 billion. –Bernama
