Trade Assistant Secretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba yesterday said the figure was a rough estimate and would be revised shortly as the local automotive industry overshot expectations in 2015 by selling 321,532 vehicles or way higher than the department’s early estimate of 300,000 units.

“We need to really monitor the (Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy) program closely and evaluate [the outcome] after six years,” she said on the sidelines of Friday’s workshop for small and medium enterprises that seek to integrate their businesses into regional and global automotive markets.

Ms. Aldaba noted the 2015 to 2022 period is viewed as the time for the Philippines to make its mark in the regional auto market, which was dominated by Thailand until 2004 and Indonesia by 2010. The so-called third wave of motorization in the Philippines comes as the country starts the CARS program this year.

The CARS program spans the six years to 2022 and aims to make the country a regional hub for car manufacturing. The Department of Trade and Industry also hopes that the program will turn local auto makers into exporters in near term and serve the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market.

By 2022, Ms. Aldaba said the Philippines should have cornered a bigger share of the projected six million car market demand within the ASEAN.

She said the CARS program was crafted with the industry’s participation to help revive auto manufacturing, generate employment, attract investments and build domestic production scale.

She expects the program to also stimulate local car parts manufacturing, specifically body shell assembly, large plastic assemblies, and common parts and strategic parts not currently produced in the Philippines.

What differentiates the program from previous ones is that it has a limited term of six years. The three auto manufacturers that qualify for the program will get P27 billion in fixed investment support — covering capital expenditure for tooling and equipment, as well as training costs for start-up operations — and production volume incentive for six years, with each enrolled car model qualified to receive up to P9 billion.

“We’ll see the numbers after six to seven years if there is a need to extend (the program),” Ms. Aldaba said.

She said that the department was looking at other programs that could stimulate demand to match the increase in production. A possible measure would be to encourage the phase out of old vehicles, while another is to offer easier financing for consumers.

The Philippines has “significant market potential as the share of households who can afford to buy vehicles increased from 26% to 36%,” she said.

“The Philippines has high population with low vehicle ownership,” Ms. Aldaba said.

President Benigno S. Aquino III signed Executive Order No. 182, or the CARS program, in May last year. The program aims to enhance the competitiveness of the Philippines as a top destination for regional car manufacturing, targeting to create 200,000 new jobs and bring in an estimated fresh investments of $1.2 billion.