General Motors to use RI as base for Southeast Asia
General Motors to use RI as base for Southeast Asia
BEKASI, West Java (JP): The Detroit-based General Motors
Corp., through its affiliate PT General Motors Buana Indonesia
(GMBI), will use Indonesia as its industrial base for Southeast
Asia, an executive says.
"General Motors has given the green light for the plan and I
have urged the company to develop the industrial base as soon as
possible," GMBI's chairman, Probosutedjo, told reporters after a
ceremony for the launching of GMBI's first product, the Opel
Vectra sedan, at its assembly compound in Bekasi.
The ceremony was attended by the visiting chairman of Adam
Opel AG of Germany, David J. Herman, U.S. Ambassador Robert L.
Barry and German Ambassador Walter Lewalter.
GMBI is a joint venture 60 percent owned by General Motors and
40 percent by PT Garmak Motors, a company chaired by
Probosutedjo. The venture was set up in September last year with
an investment of US$110 million.
GMBI's president Leonard L. Brownfield told The Jakarta Post
that General Motors is committed to expanding its auto industry
for the regional market.
For that reason, General Motors will transfer technology and
hold training courses for human resource development in
Indonesia, he said.
Support
He said General Motors will be supported by 14 U.S.-Indonesian
ventures which will soon be set up.
"According to the U.S. ambassador, next month 15 additional
U.S. component manufacturers will come to Indonesia to look for
joint venture partners to manufacture automotive parts,"
Brownfield said.
General Motors has thus far operated a General Motors Asian
and Pacific Operation office in Singapore, and a number of joint
ventures in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand,
China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
Probosutedjo said GMBI will produce Opel Vectra and Optima
sedans for the domestic market and commercial vehicles for export
to Southeast Asia.
Husin Sumarno, a GMBI director, said the company will sell
Opel Vectra, equipped with a 2000-CC engine, at some Rp 90
million (US$41,455), and Optima, with a 1,800-CC engine at some
Rp 75 million.
The company will likely start producing Optima in 1996, he
said. Both Vectra and Optima will use engines to be made in
Germany.
He said GMBI expects to assemble 5,500 sedans per year.
Husin said GMBI will likely start producing Chevrolet light
commercial vehicles with a capacity of 10,000 units per year in
1997. (fhp)