LAHORE, Sept 5: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday told car makers to rapidly enhance their car production capacities for meeting the growing demand in the country, and also look into the possibility of exporting cars, or at least, car components.
“Start planning for Pakistan of tomorrow. Pakistan of tomorrow is a growing economy,” he urged the car producers and businessmen at the foundation stone laying ceremony of manufacturing capacity expansion of Honda Atlas Cars on Monday.
He said that in his recent visit to Tokyo he had asked the Japanese investors to “look at Pakistan as their manufacturing base”. “I’m glad that the results have started to come, and Honda has decided to expand its car producing facility. In the days to come we will see more and more growth and activity happening in the country.”
After the expansion of its manufacturing facility, Honda Atlas will begin making 50,000 cars a year from the current year’s 30,000 units.
Mr Aziz described Honda’s decision to expand its capacities as important for Pakistan’s fledgling engineering industry, saying: “It reflects growth in market and economy. It means that everyone linked with the auto industry in one way or the other is going to benefit, and more jobs will be created.”
He urged businessmen to enhance their competitiveness, skills and productivity. Pakistan was committed to attaining a leading edge in the engineering industry and becoming hub of production for Asia as well as the world at large, he said. “For this (to happen), we will keep pushing. We’ll teach modern day skills, and provide the infrastructure that will create further demand for your product.”
He also told the car makers to produce more components locally and added that the components were not coming only from Japan but also from the third country. “Begin producing such parts locally.”
The prime minister defended the government’s decision to slash import duties on cars, saying the facility would not be allowed to be misused. But he said the industry also had a “responsibility to rapidly increase its capacity to meet the demand to bridge the waiting period and do away with premium charged on new cars”.
Honda Atlas Cars chairman Yusuf Shirazi, its president Mamoru Suwama and Honda Motor Company, Japan, senior managing director Satoshi Toshida also spoke on the occasion.
