Soon you might need AP’s for Mobile Phones too!
The country's first 'indigenous' mobile phone
Ladies and Gentlemen, you have been warned. If Malaysia’s first ‘indigenous’ mobile phone manufacturer has its greedy little way, you will soon have to apply for an import permit for your ‘non-national’ mobile phone.
Freshly culled from this week’s print edition of the Edge: In a classic display of boleh-dom business wisdom, the MD of Kosmo Tech, a company proposing to acquire a 30% stake in national mobile phone maker M dot Mobile Sdn Bhd, has called on the government to slap import permits on mobile phone distributors to bring in foreign brands!!!
And let it not be a surprise to you that Kosmo Tech is an auto parts manufacturer – an industry that is already subject to a protectionist AP ruling and sky-high taxes to protect a forever-nascent domestic auto industry.
Here is an extract as the news is not yet available online:
“An industry player estimates that 60% of phones sold locally are through authorized distributors while the rest are grey imports. Norhamzah [Group MD of Kosmo Tech] says to curb such practices, M.Mobile is seeking government approval to allow it to collaborate with Sirim Bhd to develop a Malaysian standard for imported phones.”
The Edge then goes on to comment:
“In essence, mobile phone distributors would need to apply for import permits. A processing fee could be charged. Norhamzah declines to say where the fees would go.”
Come on guys – surely this isn’t the way to help aspiring Malaysian enterprises grow by yet again slapping protectionist measures on the domestic market and milking its own citizens dry!
In the first place, why the heck is M.Mobile entering the savagely competitive mobile phone hardware industry from which even giant conglomerate Siemens has exited and Chinese manufacturers are rolling out low-cost, full-featured models every other month!
Secondly, why is an auto parts manufacturer contract-manufacturing cellular phones? Are there many similar processes and industrial parts or synergies between the two widely different sectors that I am not aware of??
Good Citizens of Malaysia, if this protectionist rule happens, watch our beloved country sink further into the depths of pariah-hood among global economies as we introduce yet another silly scheme to line the pockets of a few at the expense of the entire nation.
posted by hew @ 6:14 pm
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