Thai auto manufacturers have not gone out of business despite the severe impact from the global economic crisis, Industry Minister Charnchai Chairungrueang said.

Although the orders and sales had declined sharply, none of the local auto manufacturers had shut down their plants, Mr Charnchai said on Monday.

However, some of them had stopped operating temporarily so the number of cars manufactured and the amount of sales would match, he said.

The minister said the government had organised workshops for workers, aimed at reducing the number of lay-offs while getting them prepared once the economy starts to recover.

He said General Motors (Thailand) continued operating normally and it did not experience problems. However, the company asked the Ministry of Industry to help gather funds for constructing a new diesel engine production plant.

He said the ministry had a policy to assist all foreign investors equally and it had asked the Finance Ministry to consider if the company can seek loans in the country.

The plan of cutting automobile prices to stimulate demand did not work out well, the minister admitted.

As a result, the Industry Ministry had cooperated with the Finance Ministry to allow state-owned banks, including Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Development Bank, Export-Import (Exim) Bank and Islamic Bank of Thailand, to prepare funds for strengthening the manufacturers' liquidity.