Mazda will soon begin assembling the Mazda 2 in Vietnam at a newly-constructed assembly plant owned by Vina Mazda Automobile Manufacturing Company--the exclusive distributor of the brand there.
Although sales of the locally assembled Mazda 2 in Vietnam will also begin in October 2011, the Japanese carmaker hopes to produce around 2,000 units of the Mazda 2 per year and expects it to become one of its mainstay products in the Vietnamese market.
"Mazda is commencing local assembly of the Mazda 2 as the first step in an aggressive business strategy for Vietnam. With a large proportion of its approximately 90 million people in their 30s or under, Vietnam is one of the most youthful and promising emerging markets. Going forward, we are confident that the Mazda 2 will further elevate our brand recognition and become a driving force for our future business growth in Vietnam," said Yuji Nakamine, Mazda's director and senior managing executive officer for oversight of global marketing, sales and customer service.
According to Mazda, it decided to begin local assembly of the Mazda 2 in Vietnam as part of its plan to accelerate business growth in emerging markets under its framework for medium- and long-term initiatives.
We can only hope that Mazda has similar plans for the Philippines as Ford Group Philippines, which handles the Mazda brand in the country, is non-committal to the future of its Santa Rosa, Laguna, plant that currently builds the first-generation Mazda 3 and current-generation Ford Focus. Thailand, which used to import the Mazda 3 and the Ford Focus from the Philippines, is now producing the all-new, second-generation Mazda 3 and will soon assemble the next-generation Ford Focus in 2012.
