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HCM City – In the afternoon of 13 March 2008, Chairman of HCM city People’s Committee Mr. Le Hoang Quan, and Vice Chairman Mr. Nguyen Trung Tin headed the city’s delegation to pay a visit to Mercedes-Benz Vietnam’s production plant in Go Vap district. This is one of the visits to FDI enterprises operating in the city.
On this occasion, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam top management made a presentation to report to the city leaders the company’s activities, including its business achievements, current status, investment plan, etc. The company also made some proposals to relevant authorities to develop the auto industry in Vietnam, especially to encourage FDI investment in high-quality automobile part suppliers, etc. Such issues as tax policy, especially import duty and Special consumption tax, etc are also a main part of the discussion.
To Mercedes-Benz Vietnam, this visit is an important event, showing that city leaders always pay attention to FDI enterprises and establish effective dialogs with them.
The city’s leaders then had a tour around the company’s factory, where MBV’s top management presented all the modern facilities: the production line of the new C-Class invested recently, production lines of E-Class and the Sprinter minibus, top coat paint shop, inspection and quality check stations, test tracks, roller tester, etc. MBV also presented its plan for new production lines in the time to come.
Dr. Udo Loersch, General Director of MBV, who led the company’s management to welcome the city’s delegation said: “As an FDI enterprise operating in HCM city, we highly appreciate this visit of our city leaders. This is a chance for us to have useful dialogs with city leaders, and also pose our opinions, especially in the current context that we all want to have a clear master plan for the development of auto industry in Vietnam.”
Established in April 1995, MBV is a Joint-Venture Company between the world’s leading automotive Daimler AG (70%) and Saigon Automobile Mechanical Corporation (30%). Current key product line-up of MBV includes Passenger cars (E280 Elegance, E200K Avantgarde, C200 Avantgarde, C200 Elegance) and commercial vehicles (Minibuses: Sprinter Standard and Sprinter Special 313) which always leads its respective segment. In 2007, the company achieved a sales volume of 2,278 vehicles, a 90% increase compared to last year. In first two months of 2008, MBV also posted a good result with total sales of 412 units delivered to customers, climbing by 246% compared to the same period last year.
In January 2008, MBV received the license to import Mercedes-Benz CBU. In the first phase, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam will import 4-seat, 6-seat and 7-seat passenger vehicles, as well as 2-door sport cars, like: S350L, S500L, CLS350, R350L, R500L, ML350, SLK350 and GL500, etc.
However, the company’ strategy is clear that CKD remains the main business, and CBU import is an additional part to satisfy the various demand of customers.
With a long-term commitment to develop Vietnam automobile industry, MBV not only remains its current CKD production but also further expand it. MBV has in its plan to invest in 20 million USD in CKD production in 3 years’ time.
According to official figures, in 2007 Mercedes-Benz Vietnam was ranked among the top ten of biggest tax payers in HCM city.
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