ISLAMABAD – Economic experts have said that Pakistan is all set to achieveclose to 6 per cent economic growth this year with per capital incomeexpected to reach over $1,700, thanks to good governance and comparativelystable pro-growth policies pursued by the government.
Subject to the continuity in good policies along with realisation of thefruits from some of the capital investments, Pakistan is all set to beamongst the top 20 economies of the world by 2030.
The growing economy and per capita income will eventually increase thedemand for automobiles which is set to cross the 500,000 mark by 2022.The industry is also gearing up to meet the growing demand for bothexisting and up to 6 new players investing heavily to meet the growingdemand of automobiles in the country.
“Indus Motor also has invested over Rs4 billion to de-bottleneck itsproduction facility and increase its capacity by 20 per cent i.e. up to75,000 units annually by the second quarter of 2018”, said Jamali.
“We procure Rs150 million worth of local parts every day from our localvendors which amount to Rs40 billion annually, which is proof of the highlevel of indigenisation and local vendor development,” he added.
IMC has enabled over 30 Technical Assistance Agreement with global autopart makers which have resulted in technology and knowledge transfer toPakistan. Huge investments are also being made in local vendor industry tocater to the growing demand coming from both existing and new OEMs andaftermarket as well.
“Our flagship brand Corolla is ranked 23rd among 170 countries, withhighest sales in Asia Pacific and 4th highest sales in the world. Thelocally produced Corolla is equipped with the best-in-class quality andsafety features and has recently received the NCAP 4 star rating. Withrecent investments of $40 million in the paint shop, our productioncapacity has reached to 75000 units annually,’ he further said.
‘IMC is a staunch promoter of “Make in Pakistan” and we have a very strongcommitment towards localisation. 150 million locally produced parts areused by IMC every day with a massive Rs40 billion in annual purchases. ForCorolla, we have achieved 64 per cent localization,’ Jamali said.
He said that for IMC, customers are at the centre of every activity.
“We have been fighting against the menace of premiums for a long time. Ourrecent breakthrough initiative of cancelling multiple booking orders hashelped counter premiums.
Thousands of orders have been scrutinised for investors’ activity andnumerous have been cancelled. We have been regularly running customereducation campaigns against premiums. We have gone the extra mile to fightthis menace, now it’s the government’s responsibility to take initiativessuch as wholesale retail mechanisms and increased transfer taxes todiscourage premiums,’ he added.
He said that the cost of production has increased manifolds due to rupeedepreciation, regulatory duty on raw materials and price hikes in steel,fuel, copper and other factors. This will result in an increase of retailselling prices of vehicles, however, the CEO said that it is gettingdifficult to hold the prices further and the increase would be implementedsoon.