KUALA LUMPUR: The Automotive Business Development Committee (ABDC), an agency under the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti), will now hold meetings twice a month to reduce the turnaround time of automotive incentive applications.

Deputy Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming said on Thursday the present process flow and client charter of ABDC will also be strengthened and share with the industry to ensure timeliness and transparency of the process in evaluating the applications.

He added that the cost benefit analysis (CBA) for Energy Efficient Vehicle (EEV) customised incentives applications will be reviewed to ensure fair and equitable evaluation process.

These were among the proposals agreed upon between the ministry and the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) after their meeting on Wednesday.

"We want to make the CBA as clear as possible to the industry players so that the ABDC process can be sped up and issues that have been raised in terms of some of the delays that may have occurred last year will be minimised, moving forward," he told reporters here .

The MAA recently criticised the government over the delay for the approval for new car pricings.

Its president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said many MAA members were affected as they could not launch new vehicles without the pricing approval.

She reportedly said that the delay was due to the Finance Ministry's refusal to make decisions on the matter and left it to ABDC.