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497882
Wed, 07/11/2018 - 15:40
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Thailand to become production base of future vehicles

SAMUT PRAKAN, THAILAND, July 11 (TNA) - The Ministry of Industry has a policy on promoting Thailand to become a regional production base of future vehicles in the coming years. Thai Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana stressed on the policy on Wednesday, while joining an event, held at a manufacturing plant of Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. in Samrong area of Bangkok's neighboring Samut Prakan Province, for its success in producing 10 million Toyota cars as targeted. Uttama said the policy covers the promotion of manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs) in the country, as Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. announced a new investment plan of almost 20 billion baht on the production of hybrid cars and their batteries, the first of its kind in Thailand, last year. Besides, European car manufacturers have expressed their interest in investing future vehicles in the Thai economy although his ministry has not yet set a clear framework on the production units within a certain period of time. According to the industry minister, most car manufacturers in the Thai economy have opted to invest in the production of future vehicles through promotional programs provided by the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) to reduce their costs and to offer more reasonable prices to consumers. The minister acknowledged that the Thai government, through his ministry, also has a policy on promoting new investment plans on opening up of more battery charging stations in the country to serve drivers of EVs. At the event, in which Japanese Ambassador to Thailand Shiro Sadoshima also participated, the Thai minister, meanwhile, congratulated the Japanese car manufacturing giant on the success in meeting its 10 million-unit-production target, which supports the Thai government policy on promoting the Kingdom to become a world major car production base for exports to the regional and global markets. The minister also declared Toyota pickup trucks as the Thai Kingom's auto product champion, as more than 90 per cent of their parts have come from domestic sources. Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. has run its business in the Thai Kingdom over the past 56 years, with the production capacity of each model of its vehicles having reached 700,000 units annually on average, while the Thai automobile sector has set this year's total target of auto production at two million units, about 1.1 million units of which have been set for exports and the rest for dometic sale. (TNA)

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