Mitsubishi recalls top official with Proton

Mitsubishi recalls top official with Proton

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A Mitsubishi Motors Corp. executive attached to Malaysia's national carmaker Proton has been recalled to Japan, an official said Thursday.

The recall of Fumio Yoshimi comes just two weeks after he was quoted as criticizing Proton.

Yoshimi, formerly an alternate director of Proton, was quoted late July as saying that Proton would find it hard to compete in a future liberalized car market.

Kazuhide Ogata, Mitsubishi Motors' Malaysian manager, confirmed that Yoshimi had returned to Japan. He told AFP there were "no specific reasons" and described the recall as normal.

Proton's tariff protection from imported cars will almost disappear in 2005 under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement.

Proton would not find it easy to cut costs and improve quality in "four short years," the New Straits Times had quoted Yoshimi as saying.

His reported comments, which he later denied, drew a sharp response from International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz.

"I am sure that Proton, knowing fully well what AFTA is, is doing what it needs to do to cut costs," Rafidah said.

Yoshimi, who is also Mitsubishi Motors' general manager for Southeast Asia, was quoted as saying that once Proton's tariff protection were removed, its share of the Malaysian market would dip to less than 30 percent.

At the moment it is more than 65 percent.