A Pakistani automotive manufacturer has opened up a manufacturing plant in the Philippines, it emerged on Friday.

In a post on the social media platform X, the Pakistan embassy in the Southeast Asian country said: “Pakistan-made three-wheelers have entered the Philippine market!”

It said that Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr inaugurated the assembly plant of Pakistan’s Sazgar Engineering Works Limited.

It highlighted that, facilitated by the embassy, the manufacturer was introducing its “passenger, commercial three-wheelers and electric vehicles” in the Philippines.

According to the official website of the Philippine president, the plant was inaugurated on Thursday.

It quoted him as saying that the inauguration of the plant marked “an important step in our journey to strengthen our country’s manufacturing sector and advancing the transition to cleaner, more sustainable transportation”.

He said that the plant was designed to assemble approximately 12,000 three-wheeled vehicles annually, covering both electric and internal combustion engines.

“Sazgar has been building vehicles in Pakistan for over three decades. When it chose its first home outside of Pakistan and its hub for all of Southeast Asia, it chose the Philippines. It placed its confidence in our country,” he said.

According to the company’s website, Sazgar is a public limited company headquartered in Lahore. It exports three-wheelers and parts to over 20 countries, including Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.