Following years and billions of development investments, the new Ford Ranger makes its debut on Friday in a Sydney motor show that Ford Australia said has captured the attention of journalists, dealers and executives alike from across the Asia-Pacific.

Ford Australia President Marin Burela said that the freshly-redesigned ute was the result of engineering efforts started by the development team in Victoria on 2006, with the half-truck leading the pack of light commercial vehicles that would be marketed form the country to some 180 countries across the globe.

While the ute as was purely developed in Australia, Fords' assembly plants in Thailand, South Africa and Argentina would be tasked to manufacture the latest Ranger edition though Mr Burela noted that the decision did not lessen the company's unflinching commitment of further development undertakings on its Melbourne development centre.

As an offshoot of the $1.8 billion Ranger development project that commenced four years ago, Ford's Geelong facilities in the city was outfitted with developing and testing tools that enabled the centre to amply meet the growth prospects of the region in the years to come.

Ford Australia is projecting that sales prospect in the Asia-Pacific would be contributing up to 40 percent of its global earnings in the next decade, with the company's Melbourne centre playing a crucial role as the hub of Ford's regional transactions.

Mr Burela attributed the project's success on local expertise pitched in by Ford Australia's development teams, which he said would continue their work on more upcoming models using the basic engineering designs of the Ford Ranger.

He said that the basic engineering concept developed in Melbourne, with some amount of contribution from Ford specialist around the world, would remain in the centre, stressing that investments that were made in 2006 were also meant to be used on new range of Ford vehicles.

Mr Burela admitted that Ford's Melbourne plant was not even considered for the large scale assembly of the utes new edition but the designs' "intellectual property will stay here."

While speculations were ripe that Ford may not have a long-term plan for its Melbourne factory, the carmaker's regional head Joe Hinrichs downplayed such talks as he asserted that Ford's future in Australia has been secured by the substantial investments already poured on its sedan and SUV offerings in the country, the Falcon and Territory, which were both locally developed.