Manila (29 October) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reiterated in Zhejiang, China on Monday her call on Chinese auto manufacturers to sell their affordable cars in the Philippines to give low-income Filipino families the chance to own one.

The President had first asked Dongfeng Motor Corporation to tap the Philippine market for its vehicles when she arrived in Wuhan City, Hubei Province Oct. 23 on the first leg of her five-day working visit to China.

Last Monday, she reiterated her call on Chinese auto manufacturers to sell their vehicles in the Philippines at a meeting with officials of Geely Cars Co. (GCC) in Hangzhou.

Led by company chairman Li Shufu, GCC officials called on the President at the Shangri-la Hotel here to discuss business prospects in the Philippines for the Chinese car-makers.

"We need cars for the low-income Filipino people," the President told Li, who said GCC may just have a model that low-income Filipino families can afford to own.

The CK model, which sells for less than $5,000 (FOB, Shanghai), embodies the Geely philosophy of constructing "a good car at an affordable price that everyone can avail of," Li told the President.

The President told the GCC executives that Geely could begin exporting the CK model to the Philippines via the Cagayan port in Northern Philippines, the port nearest to China.