Toyota Announces Sixth Technical Assistance Plan for Technical Training Center in China

Tokyo, Japan, Sept 5, 2005 - (JCN Newswire) - TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION today announced that, on September 3, it signed a basic cooperative agreement with the Technical Training Center of Toyota Jin Bei of China Automotive Industry called the "Sixth Technical Assistance Plan for the Technical Training Center" in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China.

Under the plan, TMC will provide over 100 million yen to the center over the next three years, in order to support technical education, research trips to Japan (in order to buildup technical skill), the dispatch of teachers, equipment and tools, and Toyota scholarships.

After the signing, a ceremony was held commemorating the 15th anniversary of the training center. Among the approximate 800 guests were Song Qi, deputy mayor of Shenyang City, and Zhang Xiaoyu, chairman of the China Machinery Industry Federation, as well as TMC Managing Officer Yuzo Ushiyama. In his greeting, Ushiyama said, "Toyota signed the sixth plan because we believed it would help the training center grow against the backdrop of increasing demand for skilled and talented people in the expanding and intensely competitive Chinese car industry. From now on, may the center glitter and shine more and more as a training base for developing people who "make things", making it the pride of the city of Shenyang, Liaoning in the future."

The China National Automobile Industry Corporation, Shenyang Jin Bei Automotive Industry Corporation Ltd. and TMC jointly established the Technical Training Center in September 1990 to develop highly skilled technical specialists for carrying out domestic automobile production. From its inception, over 5,700 students have already graduated and are now working all over China. Furthermore, more than 50 of them have performed exceptionally well in technical contests throughout the country. In particular, in June of this year, students at the training center took first prize for their entry in the machining category of the first national "Promotion Cup" contest for young skilled workers, held in Shenyang City.