President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday said his administration is closely studying the proposed extension of the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program.

In his meeting with officials of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation in Tokyo, the President said while a study is underway, the government is “very much of the mind that we have to encourage this investment because it is an industrial and high-end manufacturing operation.”

“It is something that would be important to the Philippines because we are trying to encourage now… both for local businesses and businesses from other countries and businesses from Japan… we are trying to encourage this capital investment to improve the share of manufacturing contribution to the GDP (gross domestic product),” the President pointed out.

This seems to be the direction that the Philippines is going, according to the President, in a bid to “balance the economy.”

“Right now, services is a large majority of the contribution to GDP, which is alright, and we want to keep that going. But we want to balance the contribution from different sectors of the economy,” the President said.

Both Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation (MMPC) and Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) are presently enrolled in the country’s CARS program, which offers incentives for manufacturers willing to assemble mass-market cars domestically.

Under the CARS program, participating carmakers are given six years to comply with the minimum volume target sales of 200,000 units each for their enrolled car models for them to get their incentives.

In its presentation, Mitsubishi said the Philippines serves as one of the most important markets for the company and expressed commitment to promote a green energy factory with its solar rooftop project. #