TOYOTA INAUGURATES HEADQUARTERS BUILDING IN INDONESIA

TOKYO―An inaugural ceremony was held on May 7th in Jakarta to mark completion of the construction stage of a new headquarters complex for P.T. Toyota Astra, a Toyota subsidiary.

Visiting Indonesia to officiate at the opening were Mr. S. Kamiya, president, and Mr. S. Kato, executive vice-president of Toyota Motor Sales Company, together with Mr. S. Toyoda, executive vice-president of Toyota Motor Co.

The list of approximately 600 distinguished Indonesian guests was headed by Mr. M. Jusuf, Minister of Industry; Mr. Sudjono Humardani, adviser to the President, and Mr. Subartojo, director of the Heavy Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry.

In a congratulatory address at the opening of the distribution center, President Kamiya indicated that "From this point on, we at Toyota will do our utmost to build up and further improve the infrastructure of P.T. Toyota Astra."

"For this purpose," he said, "Toyota now plans to establish an Automotive Engineer Training Center in Jakarta within one year; this will facilitate the training locally of qualified automotive engineers and mechanics who will play a key role in customer services."

Toyota has already established Automotive Engineer Training Centers in Thailand and Malaysia. And, as Mr. Kamiya noted in his congratulatory message, "This will be Toyota's third Automotive Engineer Training Center in Southeast Asia."

In November, 1969,Toyota Motor Sales Company inaugurated an Automotive Engineer Training Center on the outskirts of Bangkok. The primary purpose of the center was to help organize a comprehensive service system in Thailand, to be managed entirely by local people. As a result, the Bangkok center is now staffed with from 20 to 30 highly-qualified, young automotive engineers.

An Automotive Engineer Training Center organized in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, offers integrated courses to selected motor vehicle technicians from Borneo Motors, Toyota's exclusive distributor there. The objectives of the Malaysian training center parallel those of the Thai center.

Upon qualification, many of the Thai and Malaysian engineers visit Japan to attend advanced courses at the Haruhi Training Center in Aichi Prefecture. This will also be the case with Indonesian personnel in the future.

Toyota's third training center in Southeast Asia, when it opens within a year at Jakarta, will follow the pattern set by the two preceding ones. Its establishment will advance Toyota's policy of constantly strengthening locally- based operations throughout the region.

It is indeed a great pleasure to have the opportunity to participate in this opening ceremony and to deliver a congratulatory message.

It goes without saying that Indonesia is a country endowed with a great many natural resources and assured of a bright future. It will certainly be an outstanding experience for us at Toyota if we are able to contribute to the socio-economic development of this illustrious nation. It pleases us that P.T. Toyota Astra―our joint venture with you―is, in fact, already moving firmly in this direction, aided by the valued partnership, understanding and cooperation of the Indonesian people.

The formal headquarters of P.T. Toyota Astra has finally been realized although a car allocation center has long been in operation here, the building and equipping of the distribution center has now been completed with the creation of this office. From this point on, we at Toyota will do our utmost to build up and further improve the infrastructure of P.T. Toyota Astra.

The most important of a car distributor's responsibilities is to assure customer safety, and mechanical safety can be accorded customers through perfect after-service. To achieve this goal, however, it is necessary to educate locally and retain a number of qualified automotive engineers and mechanics.

For this purpose, Toyota now plans to establish an "Automotive Engineer Training Center" in Jakarta within one year, this will facilitate the training locally of qualified automotive engineers and mechanics, who will play a key role in customer services.

The fact that our cherished offspring, P.T. Toyota Astra, has grown so quickly, is wholly attributable to the cooperation of the Government and dealers, as well as the patronage of our customers here in Indonesia.

I would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks for this to all the Indonesian people concerned.

At the same time, I would like to use this occasion to assure all of you assembled here that we at Toyota will do everything possible to make an outstanding contribution to the development of Indonesia, in close collaboration with our local partners.

Thank you very much