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.