Suzuki Motor chairman and president Osamu Suzuki has said the automaker is seeking approval from Myanmar’s government to resume production the country once known as Burma.

Suzuki started manufacturing compact commercial vehicles in Yangon in 1999 and halted production in 2010, the Nikkei reported.

The automaker has decided to stop selling four-wheel vehicles in the US and plans to focus more on the growing Southeast Asian market.

This is the first time the chairman mentioned plans to resume output in Myanmar, the report noted. He said the company has kept engineers there for maintenance services even since halting production. The executive said that if the company is to build a new factory in Myanmar, it will first have to reopen existing plants and train people.