KARACHI: Indus Motor Company (IMC) celebrated 35 years of Toyota’s presence in Pakistan, marking the milestone with pledges of fresh investment and highlighting a manufacturing legacy that has produced over 1.2 million vehicles and contributed approximately $6.3 billion in taxes to the national exchequer since operations began, stated a statement on Monday.
The anniversary ceremony was held at Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Port Qasim, attended by the Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan, senior executives of Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Tsusho Corporation, IMC’s chairman and chief executive, and around 3,000 company employees.
IMC Chief Executive Ali Asghar Jamali announced that the company plans to invest $300 million over the next five years, adding to the $736 million already committed over the past three and a half decades. He also noted that IMC’s social initiatives under its ‘Concern Beyond Cars’ programme benefit over 200,000 people annually.
From an initial annual manufacturing capacity of 5,000 vehicles when it was incorporated as a joint venture in 1989, IMC has grown to produce 76,000 vehicles a year. Local parts suppliers now feed over Rs210 million worth of components into its production line every working day, distributed through a network of 58 dealerships nationwide. The ecosystem supports more than 55,000 jobs across the value chain.
A symbolic highlight of the ceremony was the planting of Toyota’s one millionth tree under its ‘Green Pakistan’ initiative, making IMC the first automotive company in the country to reach the milestone, achieved within five years of the programme’s launch.
