Ford Motors yesterday insisted Thailand would continue to serve as its ASEAN regional headquarters even though the regional leadership team has moved to China.

The company affirmed that all ASEAN operations would remain in the Kingdom.

A statement from Ford said: "We're continuing the process of regionalisation in our Asia Pacific and Africa region, to achieve more effective integration and leverage of our global assets and resources. This includes the moving of specific functions and expertise to locations that best meet our business needs with the most efficiency and practicality."

Ford said the company remained fully committed to Thailand, with a US$500-million (Bt17.74 billion) expansion presently underway at Auto Alliance (Thailand) (AAT), a joint venture between Ford and Mazda. The expansion will increase AAT's annual production capacity to 275,000 units. Ford will build the Fiesta at the AAT plant, along with Mazda 2, which will be launched in the fourth quarter.

Ford Thailand will not be affected by the move.

"We will start moving our operations in the fourth quarter of this year. It is unclear at this point if there will be any lay-offs related to this move," said Neal McCarthy, corporate-communications director at Ford Asia Pacific and Africa.

Ford is now restructuring its business to be more efficient at reducing debt and becoming more profitable. The US auto-maker earlier this week said it had eliminated $9.9 billion from a debt burden of $25.8 billion under what it called a "successful" debt-restructuring exercise. That is expected to lower annual interest expenses totalling more than $500 million.

US auto-makers are strengthening their operations in Asia, whose markets have higher growth potential than the highly competitive US market. Analysts predict US carmakers General Motors and Ford are likely to shrink their operations in the US and move to more profitable markets.

Some analysts say this is an indication auto-makers are turning towards bigger production hubs in Asia. While the world market for big vehicles like pickups is falling, Thailand needs products like the eco-car to ensure its survival as a leading regional production and export hub.

But this will not be possible without the help of a stable government, which Thailand seems to lack, considering the political troubles of recent years.