Thailand was gearing up to become the hub for research and development (R&D) within the ASEAN region for the automotive industry.
Piengjai Kaewsuwan, president of the Thai Automobile Industry Association and chairwoman of the ASEAN Automotive Federation, said the automotive industry in ASEAN would continue to grow in line with the region’s continuous growth over the next 1-2 years.
Investment in the automotive industry among each of ASEAN member counties was also increasing, she said.
In the meantime, Ms Piengjai noted that Thailand was on the verge to becoming the hub for the R&D in the automotive industry in ASEAN, as many major automobile producers, including Nissan and Honda, have already launched R&D investment projects in the country.
Besides, Thailand has remained the number one automotive producer within the ASEAN region, with the capacity to produce around 2.4-2.5 million units annually. On top of that, the country was also seeing further investments to expand production capacity, including the second phase of eco-car productions.
According to Ms Piengjai the increased investments in other ASEAN states, such as Indonesia, which now has the capability to produce around 1.2 million cars per year, was aimed at expanding production to cater to higher demands domestically and not to move production bases away from Thailand into other countries.
