Russian automakers including Kamaz considering entering Philippine market - Russian Industry and Trade Ministry
MOSCOW. Sept 19 (Interfax) - The Russian Industry and Trade Ministry considers the entry of Russian commercial vehicles into the Philippine market promising, with the possibility of further localization of production, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister and the co-chair of the joint Russian-Philippine commission on trade and economic cooperation Alexei Gruzdev told journalists.
GAZ Group is already making deliveries to the Philippines from its facility in Vietnam, he said. The next Russian automaker to enter the Southeast Asian country's market could be Kamaz .
"From the point of view of organizing assembly, GAZ has recently been working successfully in Vietnam. And some models already produced in Vietnam have been supplied to the Philippines. Therefore, this practice can be developed, but direct supplies under various programs to the Philippines are also ongoing. So GAZ is successful in this sense, and Kamaz is also considering the possibility," Gruzdev said, noting the good pace of development of the Philippine auto market.
From the perspective of industrial cooperation, it is attractive for Russian companies to obtain ASEAN-made status for their products, as well as to participate in grant and preferential programs launched by the Philippine government, he said. "Where market conditions exist, where there will be long-term demand, it is quite obvious that our companies are ready to consider the possibility of investing, organizing either their own production or in partnership. Considering both the fairly large population of the country itself and the fact that they are members of ASEAN, accordingly, this is a fairly broad market, and organizing production there allows, with a certain level of localization, to obtain ASEAN-made status and to access the domestic market duty-free," he said. Gruzdev recalled that GAZ vehicles are supplied to Southeast Asian markets as ASEAN products in particular.
Russia and the Philippines are interested in diversifying cooperation to increase trade turnover, the level of which is currently at a rather low level, he said. "Last year, we traded just under $600 million. If we compare retrospectively, we have had higher figures. It is clear that today, when we talk about trade turnover figures, they are not always representative, as we are in a completely different reality, and sometimes commodity flows are accounted for differently and go differently. Therefore, the actual level of our trade is higher, but still it is far from the potential that we actually see," he said.
