HIROSHIMA, Japan—Mazda Motor Corporation and Bermaz Motor Sdn. Bhd.^*1 (Bermaz) have established Mazda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (Mazda Malaysia), a joint venture company in Malaysia. The commemorative signing ceremony of the joint venture agreement took place today in the new headquarters located in Shah Alam, Selangor in Malaysia. In attendance were Mazda's Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer, Yuji Nakamine; and Bermaz's CEO, Dato Ben Yeoh.

Mazda Malaysia was established in order to strengthen and expand Mazda's brand and business opportunities in Malaysia and enable the company to respond quickly to the needs of the market. The new joint venture's main roles are to oversee local production and distribution of locally-assembled models to Bermaz, sole distributor in Malaysia.

The Mazda CX-5, which adopts the full range of SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY^*2 will be assembled at the Inokom plant^*3 in the Malaysian state of Kedah starting from spring 2013. The CX-5 will be the second Mazda model to be assembled in the country. The first was the Mazda3 (known as Axela in Japan) local production of which started in January 2011.

At the ceremony, Yuji Nakamine said "Mazda considers Malaysia as one of its most important markets. Based on this strong partnership with Bermaz, in whom we place our complete trust, we will strengthen our business and brand in Malaysia."

Joint venture company outline

• *1 Bermaz Motor Sdn. Bhd.
  A national sales company for Mazda vehicles fully owned by local investments (mainly Berjaya Corporation)
• *2 SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY
  Comprehensive name of Mazda's state-of-the-art technologies, namely gasoline engine "SKYACTIV-G", diesel engine "SKYACTIV-D", automatic transmission "SKYACTIV-DRIVE", High-performance lightweight chassis "SKYACTIV-CHASSIS" and lightweight high-rigid body "SKYACTIV-BODY".
• *3 Inokom Corporation Sdn. Bhd.
  A local vehicle production company carrying out consignment production for Bermaz.