Local car firms urged to revive Tamaraw, Fiera

MANILA, Philippines - Local vehicle manufacturers should revive the old Tamaraw and Fiera for export in order to boost the production of Philippine made vehicles and to attract more investments in the auto industry, the Board of Investments (BOI) said.

In an interview after his first meeting with players of the local auto industry, Board of Investments (BOI) managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said  that he is urging local manufacturers to revive the Tamaraw and the Fiera in order to compete with the pick ups.

The Tamaraw and the Fiera were highly popular during the seventies and the eighties.

“This can be the cheaper version of the pick-up. We can sell this to Vietnam, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Africa,” Panlilio, who is also the undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said.

Panlilio said that the government and the private sector must work together to push the local car manufacturing because the industry’s manufacturing plants are operating 60 percent below capacity. When asked if the local industry was supportive of the idea, Panlilio said the players he met with Friday afternoon did not raise any objections. Among those he met with were Michinobu Sugata, president of Toyota Motor Philippines and Henry Co, chairman of Ford Group Philippines.

Panlilio has been pushing for the creation of a supplement to the Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Development Plan (MVDP). Panlilio has earlier said that he would like to make an MVDP which will cater specifically to exporters. He said the MVDP II will be ready before the end of the year. However, approval may take longer given that the consent of the House of Representatives is necessary because higher incentives will be given to exporters.

Panlilio said that the industry players that he met with during the closed door meeting Friday afternoon were receptive of the idea of the MVDP II. “They offered no objections.”

However, in a separate interview, TMP vice president Rommel Gutierrez said that the MVDP II is not necessary because the domestic market has not been saturated. “We can increase production if there is proper demand but we have not saturated the domestic base.”

For Toyota, he said their exports will still be parts and components and not vehicles. Of the players in the local auto industry, only Ford has exports. The Ford chairman, who was also at the meeting, refused to confirm if they will be increasing their capacity should there be more incentives for exports.

Last week, the BOI announced that they will be making the MVDP II specifically for exporters. The MVDP II will offer bigger incentives and tax perks to firms who will choose to sell locally made vehicles overseas. The MVDP II is separate from the Comprehensive MVDP.