Its chief executive officer, Datuk Madani Sahari, said the strengthening of local workforce was important as the automotive sector now has relatively large numbers of foreign workers of about 120,000.
"Since 2013, MAI had embarked on the Industrial Profession Certificate programme to replace foreign workers with locals in the automotive sector.
"As at July this year, we have succeeded in replacing some 21,000 foreign workers. Thus, MAI hopes we would be given an allocation to continue to train locals to replace foreign workers," he said after signing a strategic partnership agreement between MAI and Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd (MIDF) here on Thursday.
Madani said MAI also hoped that the Budget 2018 would also open new business opportunities in line with Industry 4.0 development.
"We hope the government can provide funding to industry players to improve the skills of technical and non-technical staff," he said, adding that he hoped the budget would not only empower existing businesses in the sector, but also workshops and vendors.
In the MAI-MIDF agreement, both parties have agreed to enhance the competitiveness of vendors in the local automotive industry with an allocation of RM200mil to fund about 120 companies between 2018 and 2020.
"This unique collaboration merges MAI's capacity building programmes with MIDF's industry funding capacities to create a comprehensive development programme for the Malaysian automotive supply chain," said MIDF managing director Datuk Mohd Najib Abdullah.
"Through this strategic collaboration, MAI has developed four programmes for automotive companies, and MIDF's role will be to provide financial assistance via our soft loan schemes."
Mohd Najib said MIDF would also provide financial advisory to the automotive companies, as well as participate in the promotion and out-reach activities in the four development programmes along with MAI.
He said MIDF had assisted the automotive sector by financing RM544.8 million through 144 loans since 1966, and assisted 10,598 local companies with total loans approved of RM13.9 billion since its inception.
