Thai `eco` car threat to RI auto industry

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Chairman of Indonesia`s Motor Vehicle Industries Association (Gaikindo), Bambang Trisulo, said that the Thai government`s policy to produce `eco car` could threaten Indoneia`s automotive industries.

"It is a threat to us if Thailand has begun to produce eco cars. Therefore Indonesia should also think of producing the same products with the support of the same policy from the government," he said here on Saturday.

He said that with a plan to produce 150,000 units of cars per annum, Thailand would be forced to export them, and with a condition of free trade, the cars will flood Indonesia.

Trisulo said that the only way to maintain domestic automotive industry was for the Indonesian government to adopt a policy similar to that of Thailand`s `eco car`.

One of the policy is to exempt the car industries from tax for about eight years with a condition that they are able to produce 150,000 units of cars annually.

Gaikindo deputy chairman Johnny Darmawan said earlier that the Thai government provided certain facilities for automotive investors who had the commitment to develop automotive industries in that country.

"In Thailand, a decision maker is only one. If the coordinating minister has decided a policy, all will support it. But in Indonesia, if one minister says an OK there is no guarantee that the other one will also say so," he said. ... (*)