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GM Relocates Asia Pacific Headquarters to Shanghai
SHANGHAI, China -- General Motors will relocate its Asia Pacific regional headquarters from Singapore to Shanghai by January, Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive officer, announced today.Also today, the automaker announced plans to build China's largest professional proving ground in Shanghai.GM Asia Pacific, the company's fastest-growing region, has 22,600 employees in 14 countries from New Zealand in the south, to India in the west and Korea in the north. The headquarters team oversees GM's business functions throughout the vast region including finance, product planning, communications, human resources, purchasing, public policy, legal and information systems and service. "Establishing our regional headquarters in Shanghai recognizes how important China has become to our plans to expand our global industry leadership," Wagoner said. "Having a strong presence in this dynamic and growing market is not an option anymore, it's a necessity."The move will place GM's regional staff closer to the rest of the company's operations in northeastern Asia, which account for about 85% of the company's business, Wagoner added. Those include GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. in Korea, and GM's partnerships with Fuji, Isuzu and Suzuki in Japan.Troy Clarke, president of GM Asia Pacific, noted that China has become and is expected to remain the world's fastest-growing vehicle market for the foreseeable future. "We view long-term success and aggressive expansion in China as a key part of our future growth around the world."GM operates six joint ventures in China with its strategic partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC). GM has the broadest product portfolio and the second largest market share of any global automaker in the country. On June 7, GM announced that it would make more than US$3 billion in new investments in China over the next three years. "Singapore is an outstanding place to do business," Clarke said. "But our business model has changed substantially since we originally located there in 1993."GM Asia Pacific expects to settle on the exact location of its new headquarters by the end of July and complete the move by January. GM has offered to relocate most of its Singapore staff of about 90 employees. GM will maintain a strong presence in Singapore through GM Overseas Distribution Corp., which will continue to direct the sale and service of GM's growing lineup of imported vehicles in Singapore.The General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Group will invest about U.S.$250 million to upgrade their Shanghai-based Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint venture. The new investment will be used to build several world-class facilities, including the largest professional proving ground in China."PATAC has played a critical role in GM's expansion in China by enabling GM China and our joint ventures to leverage the global resources of the entire GM Group and tailor them to the specific needs of our local customers," Wagoner said. "In order for PATAC to remain successful, it must continue to mature along with the domestic market. The new facilities will help ensure that PATAC remains the country's most advanced automotive engineering and design resource. At the same time, they will support GM and our joint ventures' continued industry leadership in China."The facility will be the most comprehensive of its kind in the country, with straightaways, a ride and handling track, a dynamics pad, low-coefficient straightaways, a high-speed bowl and a durability road system, Wagoner said. Among similar GM facilities, only the Milford Proving Ground in Michigan will be equal in functionality. Additional facilities, including a safety-impact testing lab, are expected to be added later. The proving ground will meet GM's global standards and international industry standards. Unlike other proving grounds in China, the new facility will test vehicles under a full range of real-world situations, including urban driving conditions."The establishment of the proving ground will serve as another milestone for China's automotive industry," Wagoner said. "It will not only satisfy the long-term product development and testing needs of SAIC, GM and our domestic joint ventures, but also greatly enhance PATAC's core strengths. It will spur the further technological development and raise the competitiveness of the entire domestic automotive industry, while complementing PATAC's other expansion plans."In the run-up to Auto China 2004 on June 7, GM and SAIC announced that PATAC would build several new facilities, including the most advanced prototype laboratory in China; a virtual reality design studio that will be the first of its kind in China; a noise, vibration and harshness test lab; and a kinematics and compliance lab. The new facilities are expected to be completed within two years. The new investment projects will be funded by earnings from GM and SAIC's joint ventures in China.Both GM and SAIC have 50% equity stakes in PATAC, which opened in 1997 and offers a range of automotive engineering, design and testing services. These include designing future-generation vehicles and components; providing complete engineering services for all types of motor vehicles; testing, tuning and validating vehicle systems, engines, chassis, transmissions, emission systems and whole vehicles; and engineering vehicle exteriors and interiors.PATAC has carried out a series of important projects for GM and SAIC's joint ventures. It supported the development of the Buick Sail small car, Buick Regal upper-medium sedan and Buick Excelle lower-medium sedan for Shanghai GM. In addition, PATAC created several unique concept vehicles, including the Qilin, the first concept car developed in China by Chinese engineers and designers for the China market; the Phoenix, China's first fuel-cell concept vehicle; and the Kunpeng CAV, which was shown at January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit.With the support of GM and SAIC, PATAC is cultivating China's next generation of automotive engineering and design professionals. PATAC's work force is expected to grow from over 670 at present to 900 by 2005 and 1,200 by 2010. PATAC also will continue to bring in experts from abroad to keep employees abreast of the latest industry concepts and processes.General Motors, the world's largest vehicle manufacturer, designs, builds and markets cars and trucks worldwide. GM employs about 325,000 around the world, including more than 11,000 in China. The company operates six operations in 32 countries and its vehicles are sold in 192 countries. "