Greening Malaysia’s Public Transportation with electric vehicles (EV) buses, ferries, trains and trucks is hailed as a pivotal objective in the first-ever Joint-venture between Computer Forms Malaysia Berhad (CFM) with Energy Absolute Thailand PCL (EA) to set up a manufacturing plant for EV vehicles.
Thailand’s Top 10 Public Listed Company, Energy Absolute – the country’s leader of renewable energies business, has further agreed to partner with Malaysia’s home-grown CFM to transfer innovation, renewable energy (RE) experience and carbon credit to the Malaysian government in this first time ever capital investment to boost Malaysia’s sustainability charter to achieve its Net Zero goal by 2050.
Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim acknowledged EA’s interest in supporting, investing, and promoting the pilot project together with CFM to become an Asian leader in Energy Storage. He also recognised the far-reaching foreign and domestic direct investment opportunities CFM-EA joint venture presents – in helping to achieve the 5-year government plan to reduce global warming, protect the environment, reduce pollution and develop carbon credit in line with COP27 – during an earlier briefing by CFM Managing Director, Datuk Wira Justin Lim and Energy Absolute CEO, Mr Somphote Ahunai at the PM’s office in Putra Jaya.
Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Minister of International Trade and Industry later witnessed the signing ceremony between Computer Forms Berhad, represented by Managing Director, Datuk Wira Justin Lim and Energy Absolute PCL represented by CEO, Mr Somphote Ahunai, in the presence of industry leaders and business partners at St Regis Kuala Lumpur.
“Global analysts have projected the global EV and RE sectors combined to be in excess of USD1 trillion by 2028. As such, there are numerous opportunities for companies to enter this space and capitalise on the growing appetite for ESG-based products and services by consumers, as well as ESG-focused technology and assets by investors. In order to fully capitalise on such opportunities, it is imperative that governments collaborate to align legal and regulatory frameworks to promote investments such as this joint-venture between CFM and EA. The combination of renewable energy and greening public transportation will encourage inclusive economic growth that will benefit both Thailand and Malaysia,” said Tengku Zafrul.
“The National Investment Aspirations that was launched last year charts the Government’s proactive and agile measures to further encourage public-private sector initiatives, including in the EV and RE sectors. MITI also collaborates closely with its agencies to encourage both domestic and foreign investments,” said Tengku Zafrul.
Particularly in Malaysia’s EV sector, MITI is committed to driving efforts to attract more EV investments and meeting the national target of 15% total industry volume, or TIV, for EV and hybrid by 2030, and 38% TIV by 2040. The goal for charging infrastructure is to have 10,000 public charging stations by 2025. The nation’s sustainability goals are also complemented by efforts from various ministries, such as the Low Carbon Mobility Blueprint, the National Automotive Policy, the Green Investment Tax Allowance and Green Income Tax Exemption, tax incentives to encourage EV adoption, the New Energy Policy, and the establishment of the Voluntary Carbon Market by Bursa Malaysia.
“We are expecting to yield competitive returns as greening Malaysia’s public transport system and the J-V company will work towards bringing in smart buses, e-trucks, e-trains and e-ferries to transform Malaysia’s public transportation infrastructure in the medium term,” said Datuk Justin Lim, Managing Director of Computer Forms.
The two companies will form a JV company, Energy Absolute Malaysia, who will make business investments with CFM Malaysia. The joint investments will be driven by new teams from both nations to integrate clean energy and mobility solutions to help corporations decarbonise effectively. Datuk Justin Lim further added that CFM and EA plan to produce Lithium-Ion batteries and investing in Energy Storage Systems (ESS) and charging stations to support Malaysia’s EV ecosystem.
Mr Somphote Ahunai elaborated it is the first time in decades, cooperation between Thailand and Malaysia has materialised into a concrete Capital Investment which will benefit both parties. EA’s experience in RE and EV is highly sought after in Thailand as their management consulting arm offers RE conversion know-how to many Thai companies making greener transitions in their operations. He expects the collaboration to be strong, as fellow members of ASEAN Economic Community, sharing a similar culture, heritage and infrastructure along with a connected border.
The signing ceremony seals the RM5billion investment pledge to set up a Malaysian manufacturing plant by the joint-venture company to handle EV and RE projects using the core competencies of both public listed companies.
