Page 30 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL7
P. 30

What do you think of the recent case of overstocking cars in Thailand?You have to see the bigger picture, not just the situation last year. Since 2000, the overall automobile market in Thailand has grown gradually, at five, seven or even 10 per cent a year. Obviously years with a bad economy didn’t see much growth, but it’s always expanding nonetheless. Three years ago the government somehow wanted to radically boost the market by intro- ducing eco-cars, inviting automobile companies to invest in Thailand and offer tax discounts for first car buyers, and that started the unusual demand in the Thai automobile market. In 2013 when the “first car” offering from the government was launched, the market grew 83 per cent, which is very unusu- al. That year the demand shot up to an additional 1,400,000 cars, and it dropped almost immediately becauseit was a false demand – these people were not actually ready financially to buy cars and be in debt for five years. Experienced car companies knew this phenomenon was temporary, so they increased productivity just a little to reap the profits. The oversupply came from the greedy but not savvy car companies that greatly increased productivity because they expected the demand to stay. Will the market crash? No. It’s not that serious. Incidents like this happen all the time and it will resolve itself.They don’t need help from the government. These companies are high profit companies. They have lots of money to invest and they have anticipated this kind of risk because it’s the nature of the business. They will not go out of business and the manufacturing factories in Thailand, as well as in other countries, will still operate.Will auto manufacturing in Thailand continue to do well in the AEC?There is still a demand for skilled labour. The problem with Thais is that going to university is such a must. People don’t go to vocational schools, which cater to and serve the overall industry much more directly. The problem was already looming 10 years ago when Japanese car companies were to move their manufacturing plants to Thailand to produce pickup trucks. We didn’t have enough skilled workers and the labour we have now mainly comes from Myanmar and Cambodia. They’re not skilled either, but they are determined to learn and they work hard – that’s the difference. So Thais will have a big challenge to face when the AEC starts because they have to compete with harder workers from other countries, who also speak better English. Anyhow, as long as we28 Elite+


































































































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