Toyota announced on May 25 that it will build a new $489 million car assembly factory in Malaysia with an annual production capacity of 50,000 vehicles.
The company said "decided to reorganize its production system in Malaysia, given the gradual growth of the Malaysian market, with the creation of a new vehicle plant."
The 670,000-square meter factory, to be located at an industrial estate in the central state of Selangor, will begin operations in 2019.
The existing factory in Malaysia will stop manufacturing passenger vehicles by early 2019 and focus on commercial vehicles instead.
In 2013 Toyota said it would impose a worldwide freeze on the construction of new plants for three years.
Toyota, which has about 6,500 employees in Malaysia, sold 96,000 cars in the country last year.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2016
