The first ever CKD assembly plant for Proton vehicles in Pakistan has broken ground after being officiated by Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan at an event in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The plant, which will be built in Karachi, will be owned and operated by ALHAJ Automotive, the official distributor of Proton vehicles in Pakistan and is expected begin operations by the end of 2020.
The move is part of Proton’s aim to grow its presence overseas and to achieve its sales target of 400,000 units by 2027. Export sales and establishment of CKD assembly plants in overseas markets are some of the efforts to achieve that goal.
In August last year, an agreement between ALHAJ Automotive and Proton was struck for the former to be the sole distributor of Proton vehicles in Pakistan. A plan to build a brand new assembly plant was also drawn up to take advantage of reduced duties for CKD vehicles in Pakistan.
ALHAJ Automotive will invest some USD30 million into the new CKD assembly plant, which will create 2,000 new job opportunities in its first three years of operation. A further 2,000 indirect jobs will also be created as a result of the construction of the new plant.
We will leverage on our current dealerships nationwide to start selling Proton vehicles while we develop 3S and 4S centres. CBU units will be sourced from Malaysia initially, before switching to CKD units once the new plant begin operations,” said Chairman of ALHAJ Automotive, Mr. Al-Haj Shah Jee Gul Afridi.
