PROTON UPBEAT NEW MODELS WILL BOOST NATIONAL CAR SALES THIS YEAR

SHAH ALAM (Malaysia), Aug 25 (Bernama) -- National carmaker, Proton Holdings
Bhd, believes the new model that will replace Proton Waja and the facelift model
to be launched in December will boost proton car sales this year.

Managing Director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said the facelift model
will be introduced at the Kuala Lumpur International Car Exhibition 2010 in
early December.

"The new models will make a change in higher sales this year," he told reporters
after launching a safety and health campaign on the road and workplace here
Wednesday.

Syed Zainal Abidin said the soft launch for the new models will be held after
the eid al-fitr (celebration to mark the end of Ramadan month) holidays.

"We've done trial production, plant and road testing," he said.

Asked on the facelift model, Syed Zainal Abidin declined to name the model.

"Facelift, let it be a suspense, but I can tell you it's one of our popular cars
and from what I've seen, facelift gives a much better look to the current range
of proton models," he said.

He said Proton has set an ambitious target to sell 170,000 proton cars in the
2010-2011 financial year.

"So far we're on track and we hope the two new models will give a lot more
momentum for us as we always offer competitive prices for proton models," he
said.

Proton posted RM104.647 million higher pre-tax profit for the first quarter of
the financial year ended June 30, 2010 from RM64.379 million (about US$20,4470
in the same quarter last year.

The encouraging financial earnings stemmed from higher sales and profit margin
from production of better quality cars, he said.

Syed Zainal Abidin also said Proton was talking to five banks to provide better
financing packages for customers, vendors and distributors.

"We're working out special packages for tenure of payment and interest rates,"
he said.

Proton intends to offer flexible options and low interest rates vis-a-vis 4.1
per cent and 4.2 per cent currently, he added. (US$1=RM3.14)
-- BERNAMA