Monday, 01 October 2012
By May Kunmakara
Vespa scooters are displayed at a new showroom in Phnom Penh last month. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Italian-made Piaggio and Vespa scooters officially went on sale last
weekend after being absent from the Cambodian market since 1975.
Mark Franklin, the managing director of Piaggio Asia Pacific, said the development of the Cambodian economy, and the trust his company had in it, had convinced Piaggio to return to Cambodia.
“Our company is glad and proud to be given the opportunity to bring about the best-quality brand of products — Vespa and Piaggio scooters — to serve the Cambodian people,” Franklin said.
For its comeback, Piaggio appointed local company Narita Group to be its authorised distributor.
Narita Group chairman Long Narith said his company’s partnership with Piaggio Group would bring Vespa, the most iconic scooter in the world, to Cambodia’s people.
“We will work hand in hand with the Piaggio Group to open up additional 3S [sales, service and spare parts] centres throughout the country,” Narith said.
Vespas will be priced between $2,000 and $3,000.
Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said Vespas had been available in Cambodia since 1952, but sales had faded during the civil war in the 1970s.
“The return of Vespa emphasises that Cambodia is very receptive to investment and enjoys political stability,” Prasidh said. “We hope Vespa will consider establishing a plant here in the future.”
Franklin said Piaggio had already expanded into Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. “Everybody accepts our products very well,” he said.
“I believe the middle class will look for luxury in some products, so there’s no reason to think we shouldn’t come back to Cambodia, as we did in Thailand and Vietnam.”
Narita, also a Nissan dealer, plans to open showrooms in Battambang and Siem Reap within the next year.
The Piaggio Group, originally from Pontedera, Italy, is the largest European manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles. The company has assembly plants in Italy, Spain, India, Vietnam and China.
Mark Franklin, the managing director of Piaggio Asia Pacific, said the development of the Cambodian economy, and the trust his company had in it, had convinced Piaggio to return to Cambodia.
“Our company is glad and proud to be given the opportunity to bring about the best-quality brand of products — Vespa and Piaggio scooters — to serve the Cambodian people,” Franklin said.
For its comeback, Piaggio appointed local company Narita Group to be its authorised distributor.
Narita Group chairman Long Narith said his company’s partnership with Piaggio Group would bring Vespa, the most iconic scooter in the world, to Cambodia’s people.
“We will work hand in hand with the Piaggio Group to open up additional 3S [sales, service and spare parts] centres throughout the country,” Narith said.
Vespas will be priced between $2,000 and $3,000.
Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said Vespas had been available in Cambodia since 1952, but sales had faded during the civil war in the 1970s.
“The return of Vespa emphasises that Cambodia is very receptive to investment and enjoys political stability,” Prasidh said. “We hope Vespa will consider establishing a plant here in the future.”
Franklin said Piaggio had already expanded into Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. “Everybody accepts our products very well,” he said.
“I believe the middle class will look for luxury in some products, so there’s no reason to think we shouldn’t come back to Cambodia, as we did in Thailand and Vietnam.”
Narita, also a Nissan dealer, plans to open showrooms in Battambang and Siem Reap within the next year.
The Piaggio Group, originally from Pontedera, Italy, is the largest European manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles. The company has assembly plants in Italy, Spain, India, Vietnam and China.
To contact the reporter on this story: May Kunmakara at kunmakara.may@phnompenhpost.com
1 comment:
Madam Secretary of States, Ms. Hillary Clinton and her undersecretaries of States should know that Vietnamese masters in Hanoi who have involved the crisis in Cambodian for more than 3 decades in the dirty political games and played the major roles to destroy Cambodia/Khmer Nation in order to erase the lies of their bad and disgusted Yuon behaviors and ill-intentions to slowly replace Yuon/Vietnamese folks (illegal Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia in every corners) and done the trick in the blind eyes of gullible innocent Khmer/Cambodian people, foreigners and International Communities in the world.
Hun Sen has been living in fear because of his Yuon/Vietnamese masters and now Hun Sen is a very wealthy because of the stolen properties, lands for sales, Yuon/Vietnamese business deals with corrupted CPP clans (Yuon-Khmer, Dumb leaders of CPP) and including Yuon-Chinese mixed thieves like Var Kim Hong, Yeay Phu, Lao Meng, and beyond. How much longer those Yuon thieves under the Hanoi Masters and Hanoi masters will continue to do this until the blames and pressures coming from the UN, EU leaders, the U.S., International Communities and innocent Khmer/Cambodian people.
Time will come to destroy Hanoi Masters before their Yuon Hanoi puppet Hun Sen who will be arrested and put him on trial both at the UN and Cambodian People Courts because of more than 3 decades of losses of international donors' money, assistance, and more.
Yes, Vietnamese masters will return everything that have been stolen from Cambodia and Cambodian/Khmer people to Hanoi or Vietnam to make their country become developed and economically successfully to compete with ASEAN countries and other countries like Japan, S. Korea, China during their control over their Yuon puppet Hun Sen.
Cambodia has everything and is a very rich with natural resources that is why the evil Vietnamese/Yuon masters in Hanoi saw the big opportunities to make big wealth and profit by getting rid of Mr. Penn Sovan (former PM) and installed Yuon Puppet/Slave Hun Sen be illegally unrecognized PM among Cambodian people and the world. They (Hanoi masters and Yuon/Vietnamese slave Hun Sen) are just the thieves.
What they want from Cambodia are the following:
1. Angkor Wat (Tourists pouring money in)
2. Forests/Trees (giants trees - 500 to more than 1000 years olds)
3. Fish productions
4. Oil and gas
5. Rubber plants
6. Rich soils for plants
7. and beyond.
That is why Cambodia country is not poor because of very rich natural resources comparing to Taiwan, S. Korea, Thailand, Malay, and so on.
Those f**kng Hanoi masters have oversaw things and want to steal everything from Cambodia by having Yuon/Vietnamese slave Hun Sen. You have seen the terrible situations in Cambodia. Yes, uneducated Khmer leaders (no High School diplomas or not done with High School) have been very easily targeted by Hanoi masters including evil Ho Chi Minh in order to brainwash those blind and uneducated Khmer peasants like Hun Sen and others to be manipulated and influenced before hurting his or their own Khmer people.
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