SHAH ALAM - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should announce the amount of investment that will be made by Tesla Inc and SpaceX in the country soon.
This, former Umno information chief Shahril Sufian Hamdan said was because many were making fun of Anwar as the latter did not explain about the investment after the meeting with founder and chief executive officer of the two companies, Elon Musk.
"The things that were announced were only the opening of Tesla’s headquarters, service centre as well as experience centre which we already knew about. It is not new. Now people are being sarcastic about this as there was no explanation on what the investment was.
"But, I hope that there will be an announcement on the investment. I think it is important. If there is still no announcement in three or six months, what was being said on Twitter would come true,” he said.
Shahril said this during the "Keluar Sekejap” programme he co-hosted with former Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin which was aired on Saturday.
On Friday, Anwar held a virtual meeting with Musk to discuss Tesla’s car manufacturing investment in the country as well as SpaceX’s satellite communications service.
Anwar said the government welcomed the company’s interest and decision to invest in Malaysia and also Musk’s readiness to come to the country.
He said the Tesla electric vehicle brand’s headquarters, service centre and experience centre will be opened in Selangor this year.
Meanwhile, Khairy said despite being criticised for having a virtual meeting, the more important thing was the result of the discussion.
"These meetings and gatherings have invited mixed reactions, especially those who question and dispute the format of the meeting, which is virtual. For me, that is not a problem as results are more important.
"I saw that the result was that the some old things were being announced, namely that Tesla wants to open an office, open a showroom.
"We have known about it for a long time. The announcement was not about the billions (of investment), the Tesla factory. Research and development are not even mentioned,” he said.
However, he said the first meeting between Anwar and Musk would make way for further discussions to be held.
"I saw yesterday that Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz was also present.
"Maybe from there, there will be further discussions with Tesla, Starlink officials that are more concrete,” he said.