GM sees no major change in Asia investment

SHANGHAI: General Motors Corp expects no major changes in its investment plans for the Asia Pacific in the next few years although it is cutting back on non-essential projects, its Asia Pacific president said on Tuesday.

GM and Chrysler LLC have signed loan agreements with the US government that will provide the struggling automakers with up to $17.4 billion in emergency loans to help them avert a collapse as they reel from a slump in consumer demand.

"We are clearly in a position of making sure we conserve cash," Nick Reilly told Reuters in a phone interview. "We have deferred non-essential investments, maybe six months or 12 months in some cases...but our investment plan is still on track."

Reilly said earlier this year that GM expected to invest $3-4 billion in the Asia Pacific in the next three to four years. GM's vehicle sales in China, its second-largest market outside the United States, are expected to be "significantly" over 1 million units in 2009, he said.

"I would expect us to do a little better than the market. As I said, I think the market will be flat to slightly up next year," Reilly said.

The US automaker sold 1.03 million vehicles in the country last year, up 18.5 per cent from a year earlier. Reilly said he saw no need to lay off staff in China but GM would not be adding new capacity in the country in the next couple of years.