THE government has no plans to implement a policy that discourages the ownership of private vehicles particularly end-of-life ones, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook.
Despite the government’s goal to reduce carbon emissions and make the country an electric vehicle (EV) juggernaut by 2023, Loke stressed that the condition and the growth of the country’s social economy must be put at the forefront before a final decision could be made on the matter.
Speaking at a press conference at the High-Level 15th Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport Forum In Asia, he said unlike some other developing countries, Malaysia does not have a policy for end-of-life vehicles at the moment as the country needs “practical reasons” for the implementation of the policy.
“We cannot just implement a policy to discourage the owning of these vehicles. While we are aware that we have [to do our part] to contribute to the reduction of carbon emission, we must also be practical in terms of looking into the status of our social economic development,” he was reported as saying.
The Seremban MP was responding to a question on whether the government had any plans to introduce a policy that could control the use of end-of-life vehicles as part of the effort to reduce carbon emissions in the country.
He further pointed out that there were more than 30 million registered vehicles in the country, with 15 million composed of private motorcycles.
As such, the government would ensure that a holistic and comfortable environment was established should the policy be implemented in the future, he added.
“We want to ensure that we do not create an environment or conditions where our people cannot afford these changes,” he remarked.
“Therefore, any changes must be guided and the government is actively assisting in making these changes.”
He pointed out that changes like this also take time and will inconvenient the people if the government do not allow the use of end-of-life vehicles in the country, adding that this was among the reasons the government highly invested in the country’s public transportation system.
Bernama previously reported that based on data from the Transport Ministry, since May 2022, there were a total of 33 million registered vehicles in Malaysia, with 19 million of them being at least a decade old. – Oct 24, 2023
Main pic credit: Utusan Malaysia
