Toyota picks Thailand as base for pick-up trucks

Toyota picks Thailand as base for pick-up trucks

Agence France-Presse, Bangkok

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. will invest almost
US$700 million in Thailand after choosing the emerging automobile
manufacturing hub as its base for the production of pick-up
trucks.

Toyota said Thursday that under the plan annual production of
pick-up trucks, multipurpose vehicles at its plant in Thailand
will surge five-fold by mid-2004 to 200,000 units, half of which
will be earmarked for exports. The plant will also make diesel
engines.

The company said investment in the project would exceed 30
billion baht ($697 million), creating about 10,000 jobs,
including 3,000 at Toyota and its subsidiaries.

"Toyota's decision to locate a global production base in
Thailand came naturally, since the Thai government has encouraged
the development of the automotive industry and strengthened
competitiveness through vigorous policies," Toyota managing
director Akio Toyoda said.

Toyota said it also planned to export parts for pick-up trucks
and multipurpose vehicles to other Toyota manufacturing plants in
nine countries.

Meanwhile Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) has rejected
for a second time a proposal by Japan's Isuzu to establish a
product procurement center here, a report said.

The BOI said the 2.5 billion baht proposal was knocked back
because the project needed to better establish its relationship
with the local unit of General Motors (GM), the Nation newspaper
said.

Isuzu's planned international procurement center (IPC) would
handle imports and exports of parts and vehicles for its own
factory as well as GM's, BOI adviser Supat Limpraporn was cited
as saying.

"Basically the IPC should be handling the business of only one
company, and with regards to Isuzu's project, the BOI has to
ensure that the incentives we provide would not improperly
benefit another company," Supat told the daily.

The board has instructed Isuzu to clarify the relationship
between its IPC, Isuzu and GM prior to another BOI meeting next
month, the report said.

Isuzu's proposal was rejected in April on the grounds of the
high cost of international exports that the project would need.

Thailand has become a Southeast Asian manufacturing base for
global automakers, thanks to its central geographical position,
good infrastructure, generous tax and legal incentives, and a
supply of equipment and spare parts.