Singapore, July 13: The proposed Proton assembly plant in India will be the company's biggest overseas plant to date, said chairman Saleh Sulong. The company had agreed to set up a manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh this May, when a delegation from the state led by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu visited Malaysia.

"It is still too early to estimate the capacity of the Indian plant but it would certainly be bigger than the ones in Vietnam and Philippines,''said the Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (Proton) Chairman.

"This is because the demand for cars in India is big due to the size of its population. India has got a large middle-income group so the potential is there," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

A team of experts from the company is currently in India to do a feasibility study on the Proton plant.

Saleh said the proposed plant in India would be big enough to cater for the Indian subcontinent "if that is politically possible."

Proton also plans to set up a fourth plant in South Africa, in its efforts to become a serious competitor in the car industry globally.

Saleh was optimistic of Proton becoming a global automotive player. "First, we will increase the number of cars for export from 28,000 units currently to 150,000 cars a year in the year 2000," he said.

He added that from the year 2003 onwards, about half of its 750,000 units would be exported.

He said Proton was targeting the Asean market because its total population of about half a billion, growing middle class and fast-growing economies meant the region had strong potential.

"The Asean automotive industry is expected to increase to 2.5 million units per annum by the year 2005," he said.

The Malaysian car manufacturer recorded a 126 per cent rise in group pre-tax profit to RM 1 billion (Rs 1,400 crore) for the financial year ended March 31, 1997.

The record profit was achieved on the back of an increase in group turnover of 26.4 per cent to Malaysian Ringgit 6,222 billion for the period.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.