2009 Annual Report - ChartNexus

Chairman’s Statement
50
In line with this export strategy, our locally-acclaimed Persona was successfully launched
in Brunei, Australia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria during the fiscal year. The
response in these markets has been and continues to be encouraging, to say the least. This
positive support can be attributed to the growing recognition of the PROTON brand in
these countries, the stylish and high-value attributes of the Persona, as well as excellent
distribution and customer support.
Strategic Initiatives Moving Forward
Collaborations
Minister of International Trade and
Industry, YB Dato’ Mustapa Bin
Mohamed visits PROTON.
In furtherance of the Asian Multi-Local OEM (AMLO) strategy, PROTON collaborated
with Saipa Co. of Iran to explore the possibility of joining forces in the areas of engine
manufacturing, model development and R&D. The agreement will pave the way for
PROTON to further develop its technology export initiatives, specifically for the Iran-Middle
East markets.
Still on Iran, which is one of the largest car markets in that region, PROTON has also signed
an agreement with Zagross Khodro (Zagross) for the supply of automotive parts to the
latter, our sole distributor in Iran. This is the third in a series of agreements, following the
licensing, technical assistance and equipment purchase agreements, which allows Zagross
to assemble the Gen.2 through a completely-knocked-down (CKD) arrangement. The first
production of the model commenced in April 2009 at Zagross’ assembly plant in Borujerd
city, southwest of Iran.