Philippines: ASEAN's Car production Hub?

[jpdm]

CAMPI is convincing the government and their principals to convert the country into a vehicle manufacturing hub...

This is laudable because this is the only way to go for CAMPi and its dying member firms...its not sustainable to just bring in CBU.....why cant they just follow what Toyota and UMC is doing...manufacturing through CKD?

If this plan will push through, many people will benefit...especially the middle class...and of course...the people of Tsikot...

Do it CAMPI for your own survival.....and for the local auto industry as a whole...

Philippine Star 8-10-07
Automotive investments to reach P100B in 3 years
By Ma. Elisa P. Osorio
Friday, August 10, 2007 Investments in the automotive industry will reach P100 billion in three years time as local players continue to lobby for a more open manufacturing environment.
“We should veer away from importation. The country must be a manufacturing hub for completely knocked down (CKD) units in order to bring in more investments that will help spur economic activity,” Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) president Elizabeth H. Lee said yesterday.
At the sidelines of the first ever Philippine Motor Show, Lee said the country must make it easier for car companies to put up vehicle manufacturing plants in the country.
As such, Lee said they will ask the government for fiscal and non fiscal incentives for the construction of new plants and the expansion of existing facilities.
Investments in automotive assembly is currently at P91 billion.
By October, Lee said the draft for the Market Expansion Program (MEP) will be presented. The MEP, which will be a government program, aims to help the country boost the industry.
“This is a perfect opportunity for us to develop our industry. Thailand, which produces most vehicles, is encountering problems,” Lee explained. “If we sit and do nothing Vietnam will overtake us,” she added.
Lee stressed that the Philippine market is a growing market with auto sales expected to breach the 100,000 mark this year.
Under the MEP, the industry will ask the government for tax perks in order to help encourage the local vehicle manufacturing industry. “We will ask for fiscal and non fiscal incentives to help make the manufacturing environment at par with other countries,” Lee noted.
According to her, CAMPI will ask for an Executive Order that will probably ease the excise tax imposed on vehicles.
For Lee, the country must retain current manufacturing plants and introduce new models that will be assembled locally in order to spur economic activity in the country.
“We now have the market expansion program that aims to lower the cost of vehicles to make it affordable to more people,” Lee noted.
Selling cheaper vehicles, Lee explained entails lowering the cost of manufacturing which can be done by assembling cars locally instead of importing completely build up (CBUs) units from neighboring ASEAN nations like Thailand.
“We have to tell the car companies to look at the Philippines as a low cost manufacturing zone,” she said.
The expansion program aims to increase the consumer base in the country in order to make it an attractive destination to more foreign car makers.
“CAMPI is actively involved in laying down the groundwork, in terms of policy and regulatory framework, to prepare the local industry in facing the emerging environment and ensure industry’s growth in-step with future growth and developments,” Lee said.

[acidboy]

I so wish that would come true, but I think we missed that boat 10 years ago already.

[mazdamazda]

Ford/Mazda is already doing it by manufacturing (from ground up) & exporting vehicles (Focus, Mazda3, Escape, Tribute) from their Sta. Rosa plant.

[baludoy]

aren't honda civics and CRVs assembled in sta rosa too?

[niky]

But Ford isn't a CAMPI member... ;) :hysterical:

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I don't know if it's possible. We're a small market. But if the government gives more perks, it might help.

But then again, maybe it's a bid to get those government perks... see? Even the rich can beg... ...but seriously, it would be nice to see this happen.

[acidboy]

aren't honda civics and CRVs assembled in sta rosa too?

afaik, not the new crv and civics. i think only the city is assembled here.

[jpdm]

Its possible. Specially if we can build our own market by reducing imports--imports (CBU, smuggled) that dont really help in bringing income and capital in the PHilippines. Multiplier effect ng imports......more miserable lives for many Pinoys.....because a local manufacturer will succumb competition.....and more people will lose their jobs.

Campi knows that the only way to survive is to create income within the domestic market....now if they just resort to importation....they will lose a big segment of the market for vehicles.....ang importers lang kikita...sila din kasi ang market kasi silang ang may pera....so ang majority di kasama sa equation....

So after 1996....until this very day....pabagsak na auto industry...starting with CAMPI...


The government should stop this smuggling.....pero paano kung ang nag-smuggle ay mga taga-gobyerno din o kamag-anak ng tongressman, senador, government official tulad ni*******wag nalang.....

[smooth]

correct me if i'm wrong but isn't the Philippines too pro-labor?

add to that na pa-iba-iba ang mga patakaran at alituntunin tuwing magbabago ang nakaupo sa pwesto.

[jpdm]

correct me if i'm wrong but isn't the Philippines too pro-labor?

add to that na pa-iba-iba ang mga patakaran at alituntunin tuwing magbabago ang nakaupo sa pwesto.

Actually, labor is not the main problem of foreign investors in the country. They are more concern with the power costs, corruption and peace and order here. In Laguna and Cavite, home of the largest industrial estates in the Philippines--labor or peace and order is not really a problem. Sta Rosa City--" the motor city of the Philippines." is experiencing relative industrial peace..

I think if CAMPI is serious about this plan, we can be a potential hub in ASEAN. Magulo sa Thailand ngayon, mataas ang baht, tapos ni-re-review ng ruling military junta ng Thailand ang business policy dun....natatakot na ata investors......

[niky]

The Philippines is not too "pro-labor"... but labor disputes are a problem here. The KMU is responsible for a lot of lost jobs due to their infiltration and disruption of management-employee relations at a lot of multi-national companies.

When management and labor can talk, things go okay. Multi-nationals tend to pay very well, which is why localization of production is a good thing. I'm pretty happy at what Toyota is starting to do with the Vios... I'd thought they'd given up on the Philippines... and I'm happy that Ford and Nissan have decided to stick with it here. I just hope others will follow.