National carmaker PROTON took another step towards expanding its footprint in international markets by announcing the start of CKD operations in Egypt. The announcement was made during an event at PROTON’s Centre Of Excellence headquarters, which was highlighted by a flag off ceremony to send 120 units of left hand drive (LHD) Proton Saga CKD packs to the country.

The event was attended by H.E. Ragai Tawfik Said Nasr, Ambassador of Egypt to Malaysia, and Datuk Hanafi Sakri, Deputy Secretary General (Industry), Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry, who were hosted by Tan Sri Syed Faisal Albar, Chairman of PROTON. Also in attendance were Roslan Abdullah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, PROTON, Amr Abou-Elseoud, Board Member of Ezz Elarab Elsewedy Automotive Factories, Egypt, and Steven Xu, Director of International Sales, PROTON.

Following the event, PROTON’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Roslan Abdullah, said, “Export sales are an important area of focus for PROTON in our efforts to achieve our long term goals. As the Malaysian automotive market reaches a natural saturation point, future volume growth potential will come from overseas markets where consumer demand is expected to be on an upward trend in the future. The addition of CKD operations in Egypt brings the number of plants involved in CKD and SKD activities for PROTON outside of Malaysia to five.”