According to Toyota executives, the new company will support Toyota Motor Corporation's (TMC) manufacturing affiliates in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and India.

Akira Okabe, senior managing director of TMC and chairman of Toyota Motor Asia Pacific, said TMAC would provide Toyota production facilities in the region with crucial support for strengthening their operations.

"The establishment of TMAP Thailand is an important step," said Okabe, also chairman of the new company. "It will gradually take over from Toyota Japan the responsibility for supporting production, purchasing and logistics. We are thus moving our support functions closer to the manufacturing companies.

"Close collaboration among TMAP Thailand, TMAP Singapore and the Toyota Technical Centre Asia Pacific, which began operations as TMC's R&D [research and development] centre in Thailand in 2005, will enable us to respond to the customers' needs in the region more effectively. This will be accomplished through better integration of development, production and marketing processes together with our associates in the region.

"Our growing sales volume in this region is testimony to our efforts in localising our operations and adapting our products and services to the needs and expectations of customers in each region."

Along with TMAP Singapore, which was set up in 2001 and supports the marketing and sales operations for the region, TMC will now have both production and sales support companies to integrate management through close cooperation with its manufacturing affiliates and distributors in the region, Okabe said.

Meanwhile, Ryoichi Sasaki, TMC's managing officer, has assumed the role of president of both TMAP Thailand and TMAP Singapore.

"The new company will provide TMC's manufacturing affiliates with effective support related to production, production engineering, purchasing, logistics, quality assurance, and so on in the most timely and efficient manner possible," Sasaki said.

"The new arrangements will make us faster and more effective in providing support and guidance to our manufacturing affiliates." said Sasaki, who is also president of Toyota Motor Thailand, the local Toyota distributor. "The new company will also become a hub for sharing accumulated know-how as well as for promoting human-resources development."

Last year Toyota established the Toyota Technical Centre in Thailand to design and evaluate new Toyota vehicles for the region.

The centre mainly supports the Innovative International Multi-purpose Vehicle project, which consists of the Hilux Vigo pickup and its variations including the Fortuner sports utility vehicle and the Innova multi-purpose vehicle, which is made in Indonesia. The vehicles are exported to 90 countries around the world.

Kingsley Wijayasinha

The Nation