Islamabad
The Pak Suzki Motors Chief Executive Hiroshi Kawamura has said that the Suzuki Motors has been working on the export of their cars, which had been upgraded to many WP-29 standards, stating the economic issues were transitory, and they were committed to providing affordable vehicles to a common Pakistani. The CEO also revealed that Suzuki Motors was also working on hybrid variants.
He was addressing the second round of interaction meetings with the part-makers, held here under the banner of Suzuki Motors and which was also participated overwhelmingly by the notable parts producers amid economic uncertainties. In the meeting, total consensus was seen to promote localization and go global.
The Chief Executive PakSuzki Motors, gave a concerning note underlining a need to join their efforts together. It is imperative to take stock of the escalating crisis situation collectively for the automotive industry. Hiroshi Kawamura remarked that they firmly believed that nothing could be achieved without the local partners.
Addressing the meeting, Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories (PAAPAM) Senior Vice Chairman Usman Aslam Malik diagnosed the non-availability of primary raw materials, lack of technology, and low level of localization as the core causalities, leading them to that point. We need to attain an economy of scale to develop affordability for the common person, Malik furthered.
We must contemplate why we are yet below 0.3 million in production in the 5th largest country; Malik placed a thought-provoking question before the fraternity. Frequent introduction of variants was also a great barrier to localization, SVC PAAPAM remarked. He reminded the industrial top-notches even the economies much more robust than Pakistan did not have such frequency of variants. He offered the platform of PAAPAM as a catalyst for capacity building and aligning the industry with the needs of the hour.
The SVC urged the OEMs to open up their A max or non-localized list for vendors and display them at PAAPAM to promote localization. Usman also emphasized exploring the export-after-market for engine and transmission parts, which had a high replaceability rate. Commenting on the Global Supply Chain and EFS, SVC PAAPAM assured its complete support to OEMs for exporting parts through a global supply chain for a dealership-based replacement parts network.
The recently introduced Export Facilitation Scheme, replacing the old cumbersome DTRE by the Government, opened up many new cost-cutting venues for the global supply chain regarding duties and tax exemption. It’s up to us to respond to these moves to get the regional competitiveness.
In his keynote speech, Malik criticized the Government for not providing consistent, industry-friendly policies. Used cars were opened every few years and subsequent governments surrendered repeatedly to traders’ lobbies.
The deletion programs were replaced with a less effective mechanism, which was a major blow to deletion process . Abdul Hamid, an Executive member of PAAPAM, also highlighted the issues and remedies for the vendors. He highlighted the need for vendors to diversify using their technical strengths.
In its first round, Aziaz Abdul Rehman, former Chairman of PAAPAM, also emphasized the Export Global Supply Chain and import substituted as a way forward. Aizaz suggested OEMs and vendors based on the Global Supply Chain mechanism attain at least 10% of the export of their local sales volume. Aizaz was of the view that collective efforts by OEMs and Vendors could repair the damage.
