Calls are growing for Chinese automakers to speed up their independent
development, instead of being affiliated with foreign auto giants.
"The time is ripe for our country to have an independent auto industry,"
Vice-Minister of Science and Technology Shang Yong told a government-organized
auto forum in Beijing yesterday.
Domestic car manufacturers should seize the opportunities available to
enhance development capabilities and foster their own brands, as China is the
third biggest and fastest-growing auto market in the world, Shang said.
Total vehicle output in China rose by 12.6 per cent year-on-year to 5.7
million units in 2005, including 3.1 million cars.
However, four-fifths of China's car market is controlled by foreign brands as
the development capabilities of domestic carmakers is much weaker than its
foreign rivals.
"We should resolve to promote independent development and brands," Shang
said.
Expecting foreign automakers to transfer core technologies to China, the
government allowed them to produce cars domestically two decades ago.
All of the world's major automakers have formed joint ventures with Chinese
partners.
However, as a result, Chinese carmakers have failed to obtain core
technologies from foreigners, while the latter has dominated the domestic car
market.
Mei Yonghong, another official from the Ministry of Science and Technology,
pointed out yesterday that forming joint ventures with foreign partners is
unlikely to make China's auto industry strong in real terms.
Most of China's carmakers have vowed to develop independent brands.
The First Automotive Works Corp (FAW), the partner of both Volkswagen and
Toyota, plans to spend 11.7 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in independent
development from 2006 to 2010, Wu Shaoming, the company's deputy general
manager, told the forum yesterday.
As China's top auto group, FAW aims to increase sales of its own brand
vehicles to 1 million units a year by 2010, from 550,000 units last year, Wu
said.
The 2010 figure will account for half of the company's overall annual vehicle
output by that time.
Beijing Automotive Industry Corp, which has a joint venture with
DaimlerChrysler and Hyundai Motors, also plans to invest more than 10 billion
yuan (US$1.2 billion) in independent development over the next five years, said
Dong Yang, the company's general manager.
Dong said the Beijing auto firm's input in development will grow to 3 per
cent of its total turnover annually during that period.
(China Daily 04/27/2006 page9)
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