On October 27, Consul General Takaoka attended the ceremony “Hello Texas” in Plano to which Toyota North American Headquarters is going to move. Among the many participants to the ceremony, there was Governor Rick Perry, Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere, as well as Texas State Representatives and Plano City Council members.
Governor Perry officially welcomed Toyota to Texas, saying that his fourteen years of Governorship began with the construction of the Toyota factory in San Antonio and ends with Toyota’s decision to move its North America Headquarters to Plano. He emphasized that since the ground breaking ceremony of the Toyota factory in San Antonio in 2003, he has been made all efforts as Governor in many fields such as tax, regulations, education and environment so that Texas would be a state friendly to business activities.
Mayor LaRosiliere praised the Toyota’s contribution to victims of natural disasters as well as local communities.
Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz explained that Toyota has invested 2.2 billion dollars in Texas before now and that the factory in San Antonio directly created 2,900 jobs, while the indirect job creation comes up to 18,000.
After the VIP remarks, Ms. Nastia Liukin, the Gold medalist at Beijing Olympic Games in female gymnastic individual all-around, arrived on the Toyota “Tundra” manufactured at San Antonio factory, and Toyota announced its donation of six new “Tundra” vehicles to Plano as well as its one million dollars assistance to schools in Plano. |
