Home »Top Stories » Suzuki still struggling to get Greenfield status
M/s Suzuki Motors Company Limited is still struggling to get Greenfield status against estimated investment of $ 460 million, well informed sources told Business Recorder. Recently two senior diplomats of Japanese embassy in Islamabad met with senior officials of Ministry of Industries and Production, seeking help to "achieve" this goal but they were clearly told that M/s Suzuki''s investment does not fall under prevalent auto policy. The quality of Suzuki''s cars also came under question during the meeting. The company recently unveiled its new car Suzuki Alto replacing its decade old model Suzuki Mehran. The company has started booking the new car for Rs 0.5 million without announcing the final price, with expected delivery in June 2019. Before this, M/s Suzuki replaced Suzuki Cultux with a new model.

The sources said, all Pakistani senior officials and political leaders who visit Japan are being plausibly questioned as to why M/s Suzuki is not being given Greenfield status despite the fact that the company is making a huge investment in Pakistan.

M/s Suzuki, in a letter to a senior government functionary praised his role for his continuous support for the company''s investment proposal of $ 460 million.

"We have completed all the preparatory work to start the construction of our new plant. Funds have been arranged by our principal Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan for direct investment and are ready to transfer. Now we are eagerly awaiting the approval of Greenfield incentives and benefits for the period of three years by the Government of Pakistan," said Masafumi Harano MD &CEO of Suzuki.

The CEO also assured that the company and its vendors will continue progressive localization, assuring that there will be no rollback of localization after allowing the Greenfield incentives and benefits to Pak Suzuki.

M/s Suzuki intends to invite Prime Minister Imran Khan and other top officials on the occasion of stone laying ceremony of the new plant. The ceremony will also be attended by the world wide auto sector business community.

M/s Suzuki began efforts to get Greenfield incentives during PML (N) government, indicating a proposed investment of $ 460 million if granted the status. The former government had tailored auto policy in a way that existing players would not get incentives of Greenfield offered to new players.

The two other key players i.e. M/s Indus Motors Company which manufacture Toyota and M/s Honda Atlas have invested billions of rupees on expansion without seeking Greenfield incentives.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019


the author

I did graduation from the Government Murray College Sialkot and MSc in Psychology from the University of Punjab. I am in journalism since 1990. I worked in Daily Nawa-i-Waqt as sub editor and staff reporter in Daily Pakistan and Daily Din prior to joining Daily Business Recorder. I have been associated with this newspaper since 2000 as staff reporter. Energy Sector, Commerce / Trade and Industries are key areas of my interest. I have also the credit of exposing number of scams like Rental Power Plants (RPPs), LNG, sugar import, etc.

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