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Showing posts from November, 2009

“THAILAND LIFT YOUR GAME” WAS AFG CONSENSUS

We're in the News! Read the report by Harry Green in Pattaya Daily News on last Friday's AFG event.

VW may drop Thai eco-car plans for Proton alliance

Volkswagen may abandon plans to build an eco car plant in Thailand in favour of developing a more comprehensive alliance with Proton in Malaysia, according to Vallop Tiasiri, president of the Thailand Automotive Institute (TAI). Read more here .

AFG looks at counting pennies

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Courtesy of Doc Iain Corness and by kind permission of the Pattaya Mail , please find below the report on the AFG Meeting from Friday 13 November: The Automotive Focus Group (AFG) invited representatives from General Motors and Ford to address the members on the subject of “Thailand outlook for the auto industry in 2010 and beyond.” Frank Holzer, a genial GM style Aussie was the first speaker, but unfortunately Reiko Webster from Ford got lost and arrived a little late, so her address will be deferred to another meeting of the AFG group. (It really is time that FoMoCo had Satnav as standard equipment!) Frank Holzer began his very ‘frank’ address by stating that the current problems are actually future problems, so we (and GM) are not out of the woods yet. He cited the global economic crisis, international business issues and Thailand’s political issues as all factors which resulted in GM seeing a 59 percent drop in sales year on year. Factors affecting the bottom line included wages

Bangkok Post: Honda opens R&D facility

The new Bangkok-based Honda's automotive research and development facilities for Asia and Oceania officially opened yesterday will help accelerate the eco-car development in Thailand, said Mr Fumihiko Ike, president of Asian Honda Motor Co.