Speech of Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima
Toyota Motors Philippines’ 1 Million Sales Milestone Celebration
9 July 2015
Thank you for that very kind introduction.
Good evening everyone. He mentioned a lot of recognitions – those recognitions are really recognitions of the programs and leadership of my boss, President Aquino. As you know, I’ve done this job twice, with different results. The only difference is the leadership, and that’s my boss. The other thing that’s different is the support that we have been getting from congress, including that of Senator Sonny Angara who is very supportive of the initiatives of the government. Thank you for the support.
Dr. Ty, thank you for your investment in the Philippines and your partnership with Toyota Motors. Mr. Tanada, welcome to the Philippines.
A million cars is a lot of cars. In fact I was trying to figure out how many cars can EDSA fit. All I know is that this will add to the traffic and therefore, Secretary Singson would have to double up in terms of building the roads.
A million cars in 26 years – I think that’s a major accomplishment. But the important thing to note, Mr. Tanada mentioned that half of that was sold in the last 8 years. I’d like the point out though that in the five years of the Aquino administration, a third of that was sold.
More importantly, in 2015, the Philippines overtook Malaysia as the third largest market of Toyota in ASEAN. We’re not only the third largest market of Toyota in ASEAN; we’re now the 13th largest market of Toyota globally. We were 19th just a few years back, and that just shows how you that with improved economic growth, the potential market of companies also improved. We’re saying that we’re approaching the modernization inflection point of the country – the numbers show that. Last year we sold over 230,000 cars, and the first quarter showed an increase of 21%, so we’re well on the way to hitting 300,000 cars in a single year.
The other important point that I’d like to note was also mentioned by Dr. Ty earlier. Over the course of existence of Toyota Motor Philippines, they paid over 170 billion in taxes. That’s very important to Commissioner Henares. In fact I’d like to further refine that point: of the 170 billion taxes that were collected, 79 billion was collected by Commissioner Henares, collected over the past 5 years. So I hope that instead of collecting 79 billion in 5 years, she can collect 79 billion a year.
The other important point is that the President has already issued the CARS program EO. I hope that with this EO, we can further strengthen the car manufacturing industry, as well as the spare parts manufacturing industry in the Philippines. Toyota Motors itself brought in 13 of their supplier companies in the country and I hope that with this program, that number will increase.
As of now they assemble two models, produce 40% of components in the country, again the hope of the government is that with the CARS program, they will assemble more models in the country and produce more components in the country.
So again congratulations to Toyota Motors for the first million cars that they’ve sold in the country. I do hope that the next million cars will not take another 26 years – hopefully 5 years, or maybe less than that.
Thank you and good evening to everyone.
