Thailand aims to keep its No 1 production spot in ASEAN

Thailand aims to keep its No 1 production spot in ASEAN

It looks like Thailand is responding to Indonesia’s emergence in aiming to be top gun in terms of automotive manufacturing in ASEAN. A report states that the country is set to spend 3.42 billion Baht (US$113 million) over the next three years to develop the nation’s auto industry; the amount was approved by the Thai cabinet earlier this week.

Most of the spending will focus on developing a skilled workforce, the report said. The country produced more than 1.6 million vehicles last year, and by 2014 the output could be in the region of three million vehicles.

With the major obstacle being a shortage of skilled labout to meet the increased demands, most of the money – around 2.17 billion Baht – will be spent on skills training. The rest will be used to develop what has been called an “integrated testing ground”, to both raise automobiles and parts standards as well as up the country’s competitiveness in terms of car testing facilities and abilities.

Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.

10% discount when you renew your car insurance

Compare prices between different insurer providers and use the promo code 'PAULTAN10' when you make your payment to save the most on your car insurance renewal compared to other competing services.

Car Insurance

Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • pomen_gtr on Mar 17, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    thanks to our “great” AFTA not so abiding rules…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • in what area?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • what effect excise tax with car production/ auto invest? cant they produce car and export don sell here…..walla easy

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • T4VR-Ralph on Mar 17, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    Vios vs. Avanza

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Thailand is further developing its car industry not just as a South East Asia Assembly Plant but to be an R&D and Testing facilities as well. This is good news for the automotive workers and entrepreneurs over there. I’m sure Indonesia will react the same way to ensure its market stays competitive too. Their rakyat will surely benefited from this progress.

    How about our good Malaysia Boleh Land? We are the ones who started it all and 25 years later, we actually achieved the art of squeezing money from the rakyat with poor quality cars and a messy automotive industry.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • all because of NATIONAL CAR….too protective

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • fuel cell phone on Mar 18, 2011 at 7:15 am

        imho, what happen in our boleh land started with ‘G’s…
        a) G*v*rnm*nt
        b) Greed
        c) Gullible (rakyat)
        d) All the above

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • kawan on Mar 18, 2011 at 8:25 am

      the MB government still use old fashion method by cekik darah duit from rakyat rather than benchmark the method from thailand to maintain not enhance automotive industry development..what a pity government..

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • most our company do not want to invest R&D n testing….how many percent our company has their own R&D department/center…..most r gov own n international company R&D center…in our dream la if they want to do..

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • longjaafar on Mar 17, 2011 at 5:08 pm

    Thailand spends money to train it’s people to work in the motor car factories. It leaves the investment into manufacturing to the private sector, who already have advanced technology. Malaysia invests directly into the factories and end up with low technology,and having to grapple with unskilled workers, having to be trained by the factories themselves thus adding to the burden. I tend to like the Thai model. That’s why they are way ahead of us.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • that becoz our company do not do that all depend on the gov….that s why malaysian company that are bigest, largest, widest, worldwidest, advancest, profitest, technologiest company are gov own company

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • How about Malaysia? NAP policy it can’t help, change to NO Automation industry POLICY instead of New Auto Policy, all NAP is a shit, shit make us spend more and more, one more “Chopshop” policy start from Jun’2011, no import used parts is allow, Why ah mister? Mister : we need you spend more and make sure you are happy.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • VIGOSS on Mar 17, 2011 at 6:08 pm

    yeayyyyyyyyy thailand #1

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • So, the final is set between Thailand and Indonesia while Malaysia is already out of the competition. It is timely for the government to go back to the drawing board and start strategizing the way to recapture the position by doing it differently.

    Some wise guy said that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result “.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • papa(not)rich on Mar 17, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    around 2.17 billion Baht – will be spent on skills training. The rest will be used to develop what has been called an “integrated testing ground”, to both raise automobiles and parts standards, probably malaysia will utilizes for BUMI and self wallet prior.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • The issue of Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera has always been a hot topic in our blessed BolehLand. Unfortunately, due to political arm-twisting and a progressively-corrupted regime the idea of helping the poor bumiputera (after the small hiccup of May 1969) was not entirely “effectively” implemented. Althought some goes to the targeted poor group but most of it went into somebody’s pocket.

      Please don’t get me wrong, helping the needy poor amongst the Bumis (and even the non Bumis) is a must. What we the ‘rakyat’ opposed are those ‘people’ (somewhere up there) who are misusing their position to empower themselves via cronyism and nepotisme. Bad politics (and bad people) are not bound by any race, religion and even political parties.

      Bear in mind, in Malaysia there are that 99% regular Bumis and less than 1% corrupted Elite-Bumis. If our resources are to be managed properly by a reliable government and most importantly by honest responsible leaders, Malaysia would thrive once more as it did in the early 1980’s and early 1990’s. There will be more than enough resources for everyone!

      Then again, as voters, we all should know what to do right? ;)

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • tokmoh on Mar 18, 2011 at 12:22 am

        If only vote can realise the change needed…

        I hope I can be proven wrong, as much I’d like to see change, thus a hope for improvements, I can’t help but feel a tinge of despair somewhere deep inside my heart.

        It’s hard to understand why most people just prefer the devil they know, simply because the devil they don’t know is a gay (like, so what? Prefer a porn star as a party leader? yea sure), able to bankrupt the nation more quickly (as if the current devil isn’t bankrupting the nation already, yea sure), and too extremist (racist is not being extreme, yea sure).

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • waimak on Mar 18, 2011 at 10:53 am

        SY0H, we have partly ourselves to blame. The majority Malaysians still believe in the system and that’s why it still exists. So, do your part and I’ll do my part, change is slow but possible.
        The automotive industry here started in the right step and direction. However the model couldnt stay long as most players lack the drive to compete, improve, acquire new technology and most importantly become complacent with what they have a achieved – typical right? Repeat these over the years and here we are now. Automotive is not like plantation, telcos, construction or the sort. You cannot simple change because it requires time and development. If we started it wrong then its a painful process to manouver and get it right.
        Before we could comment more about the policy we have here, do remember Thailand and Indonesia are not the same as Malaysia. Both are riding on the benefits of industrial growth, sectorial capability and yes economic well being whereas we here tries to achieve the same objectives but at the same trying to maintain local brands, which I see there’s a conflict.
        If really the governments want to boost the auto industry here I think they should do more. If you look carefully, most auto suppliers here still have their principles based in Japan or Korea or other countries. After years of business only a few acquire the skills, knowledge and technology. So how do we progress?

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • bluetravler on Mar 18, 2011 at 11:31 am

        hear hear, you have got it right and in the company i work with/for. 2/5th are malays. Most of them, in small group or individually have express concern or dislike of BN/Umno, they know how corrupt the gov’t is and really no”real” help from them. But as a whole they are afraid to vote other wise. Like the saying goes “….. a human being is a very smart being, he can think logically and solve problems correctly………, but people stupid………even knowing its wrong, individually, they will still act on it as a group of people………………it is known as mob mentality.”
        Yeah our current gov’t is “mob” leading, individuals.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Thailand and Indonesia work force getting better and better, before long we our work force will be better at being a trading i.e. Ali Baba business aka AP King

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • udasalleh on Mar 17, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    This has been discussed before. Our nation of 27million people just cannot compete with Indonesia of 230mil and Thais 68mil because for this type of industry needs the low wage workforce. That’s the key : LOW WAGE and the abundance of it!

    Lets look ahead, while we are on the verge of becoming a developed nation, Indon n Thailand are still developing. The question is how do we sustain our auto industry? We could build somewhere cheaper than us like India like what P1 is discussing about. Or we could do the BMW n Merc way which is go fully automated. Then our labour will be highly skilled and techincal. There are places where u can learn these skils as long as u have the moolah. lAlready we are moving out of labour intensive manufacturing economy to services oriented economy while maintaing more hi-tech intensive manufacturing.

    Like it or not… bitchin bout the situation doesn’t help and I bet none of us in this forum wants to sweat it out daily with the rate they’re paying. Lets look at the big picture for once.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • Malaysia Memang Boleh on Mar 17, 2011 at 11:18 pm

      Some Malaysian can’t understand about population and labour cost,they simply talk rubbish,they think we lose to the Thais and the Indons because of the ‘silly’ policy,come on Automotive is not everything.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • Our GDP even lost to Singapore which have merely 4 millions, What say U ?

        Once consider potential Asia 5 Tiger/Dragon now behind Thai & Indo, What Say U?

        UM drop out of 200 uni list, What Say U ?

        Please name something we are ahead. except those bad one.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
        • in which of these country produce/design their own car….malaysia
          malaysia leading in palm oleo industry
          malaysia leading in islamic banking
          crude steel production malaysia leading
          …………etc

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
        • TFazuin on Mar 19, 2011 at 5:05 pm

          Manufacturing is confined to low income countries, that’s an undisputed fact, look at UK, all the local brands are gone, look at Spain, even Seat has been sold to VW. The only way to maintain the competitive advantage is to automate.

          Salaries in Malaysia are higher than Indonesia and Thailand and yes it is cheaper to manufacture and sell in a market that will have a chance to grow.

          Singaporean salaries are ok, but their actual cost of living isn’t cheap either. As for migrating and working over there, unless I can double than I make here after taxes its not economically viable.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • Salamander on Mar 18, 2011 at 12:19 am

      Well this is an automotive blog, what do you expect? Most of them still butthurt Malaysia is not the hub for ASEAN automotive industry.

      They fail to realize Service Industry > Manufacturing Industry and our country is already evolve to a greater good.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • Unforgiven on Mar 18, 2011 at 10:42 am

      I’m unable to see that in the near future that we are really that good. Sometimes it depends on how hardworking the people and the willingness to learn/accept.

      If the mentality of Indon/Thais/Viet are those hardworking people, then you’ll know what to expect in the near future.

      Honestly it’s just a couple of years and you’ll be able to see the changes, I’m referring to Jap/Korea/S’pore.

      The G and their families are mostly highly educated and spend most of their time in overseas. They know about the US/UK/Jap/etc but once they are back to M’sia, god knows how they treated the rakyat.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • sproc45 on Mar 17, 2011 at 8:46 pm

    No worry thais, we will not compete with you. M’sia is all about jaguh kampung.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Cool. Thais and Indons are our neighbours. At least we could learn something from them. Good compeititon will make us stronger. Until we are at deperation state, we ain’t thinking about gettin’ out of our comfort zone.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • HafizJoe Dorifuto on Mar 18, 2011 at 7:43 am

    Welcome to Golok…Thailand No. 1…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • to save face our G will not want to learn from neighbours

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Do they import auto parts from Japan?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • VIGOSS on Mar 18, 2011 at 11:37 am

    MALAYSIA = #1 JAGUH KAMPUNG.
    ONLY FORCE RAKYAT SENDIRI BUY OWN CAR WITH EXPENSIVE PRICE + CRAP QUALITY.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • ikari on Mar 18, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    so what if they are number 1 they don’t have their own national car, so what if we are last we have our own national car

    they must be so envy of us, lol

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Thanks to our former PM, all the big car companies are investing in Thailand instead of Malaysia. Protecting our local car industry at the expense of the whole country’s economy

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Our economy was actually good because of our national car in the late 80’s after an economic downturn in early 80’s. Many SME’s were set up to supply auto parts.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • transformer on Mar 19, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    Go read today The Star Bizz SBW20-22, the plight of Bolehland’s automotive sector…. still need to breast feed, perpetually(if possible), be it national car makers, its supplier, dealer association of those car makes, the whole supply chain not forgetting AP holders and PUKEMA…..

    G’s is barring foreign makes for the sake to protect fews cronies and this is not good for Rakyat!

    So i hope all reader here would not buy new car or even a 2nd hand AP car until Rakyat has been given the privilage of owning real car(low cost, high quality, fully equipped, EuNCAP 5star, eco friendly, great fuel economy, safe)! When we don’t buy(no tax, no excise duty, no AP), we don’t feed ’em and let them rot…

    *ps: my sympathy to all chop-shop owner, worker and their family

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • transformer on Mar 19, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    Go read today The Star Bizz SBW20-22, the plight of Bolehland’s automotive sector…. still need to breast feed, perpetually(if possible), be it national car makers, its supplier, dealer association of those car makes, the whole supply chain not forgetting AP holders and PUKEMA…..

    G’s is barring foreign makes for the sake to protect fews cronies and this is not good for Rakyat!

    So i hope all reader here would not buy new car or even a 2nd hand AP car until Rakyat has been given the privilage of owning real car(low cost, high quality, fully equipped, EuNCAP 5star, eco friendly, great fuel economy, safe)! When we don’t buy(no tax, no excise duty, no AP), we don’t feed ’em and let them rot…

    *ps: my sympathy to all chop-shop owner, worker and their family…. god bless you!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

Add a comment

required

required