VietNamNet Bridge - Talking to the press during the launch of a new Camry model in Hanoi on Tuesday, Yoshihisa Maruta, General Director of Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV), denied that TMV would stop manufacturing cars to benefit from a 0% tax rate in 2018.

TMV CEO Yoshihisa Maruta (middle) at the meeting.

Earlier, some newspapers reported that at a meeting in early April, TMV CEO Yoshihisa Maruta said that the firm was considering stopping auto production and assembly to import CBUs (completely-built cars) in 2018 in accordance with a roadmap on reducing import duties on CBUs from Southeast Asia to 0%.

However, at the meeting on April 21, Maruta denied that in front of reporters from nearly 80 media agencies.

"I think there was a misunderstanding here. I can confirm that TMV absolutely has no intention of leaving the auto manufacturing and assembling market in Vietnam as the press had reported earlier,” he said.

“In contrast, Toyota has always desired and taken effort in any way to be able to continue developing this segment in Vietnam. Of course, we all know that in 2018 when the import tax rate on CBUs from ASEAN countries falls to 0%, Toyota will continue to strive to increase the competitiveness on production costs compared with other countries in the region. Again, the information that TMV intended to stop car production is not true," he said.

TMV media representative, Le Thi Huong Diu, explained that at the meeting in early April, Maruta said that the process to manufacture a car takes three years and the current time is the time to have a clear policy for the development of the automotive industry in Vietnam so TMV can make its plans.

However, the Vietnamese government has not released any specific policies, so TMV is facing difficulty in planning for the future, and some automakers in Vietnam are more likely to be diverted from production to imports.

"Here, when Maruto talked about the possibility of ceasing auto production of some automakers in Vietnam, the press thought that he was talking about the intent of TMV," Diu said.

When she was asked whether this was a "request" for a clear policy for the automotive market from TMV to the Government of Vietnam, Diu said, "TMV only mentioned the actual situation and the nature of the problem."

ANTT