The Galician Automotive Industry has recently presented a package of ten measures that will be started at once to relieve the repercussions that the economic crisis is generating in this industry. The Director of the Centre of PSA´s Vigo Peugeot Citroën, Pierre Ianni, and the President of the Galician Automotive Cluster, Antonio Vega, presented the initiatives thought to be deployed immediately.
According to the Director of the PSA Peugeot Citroën plant in Vigo, these measures answer to the needs imposed by the current state of economic crisis that concerns the set of our society: ”The situation that the Galician Automotive Sector faces, obeys the current behaviour of the market, and it does not differ substantially to what happens in the rest of the world”. In this respect, the Director of PSA Vigo interprets the crisis as ”a process of change that carries, depending on how it is managed, opportunities and threats”. In Ianni´s words, ”The sector possesses the necessary assets to manage this change in terms of opportunity and power to continue competing and guaranteeing the future ”.
Realistic measures
The Galician Automotive Sector wants to continue leading its development. Therefore, the common characteristic of all the measures integrated to the plan presented this evening, depend mostly on the own companies and of their aptitude to develop a common and well defined strategy.
The package of measures acts in three areas: reduction of costs and optimization of the processes, insurance of the economic liquidity of the companies and extenuation of the social impact of the economic crisis.
Social sensibility
The President of CEAGA, Antonio Vega, emphasized in his intervention the importance that has been granted to employment in the establishment of these measures. Vega remembered that the Galician Automotive Industry is strongly consolidated and that throughout the last years it has developed a high competitive capacity. ”Now, to continue developing our competitiveness it is necessary to continue fostering the cooperation, to extend methods of production that optimize results, such as Lean Manufacturing and to favour the development of the flexibility ”, he indicated.
In this respect, the President of CEAGA reminded that ”Respecting the social policy of each company, the sector promotes the dialog with the unions for the attainment of agreements that help to guarantee the consolidation and the future of this industry in Galicia”. Vega defended the need of that the union organizations become ”co-partners” in the development of the strategy to overcome the consequences of the economic crisis.
Urgent needs
Throughout the last years, the Galician Automotive Sector has constantly repeated to the different Public Administrations the needs considered to be unavoidable to improve the competitiveness of this industry. Before the economic crisis situation and its consequences in the behaviour of the car market, the sector stresses that these needs have made to themselves more evident than never and that do not admit delays. Aspects like industrial competitive soil, improvement of infrastructures, or the launching of the Centre of Excellence in Electronics for Intelligent Vehicles continue demanding urgent concretion.
For any more information, do not hesitate to contact us:
Abel Tintos
abel.tintos@ceaga.com
Tel. 986 213 790