Thailand has now secured a new mega Japanese investment project on the production of a world innovative auto gear, called the continuously variable transmission (CVT) gear, with its initial capital of 20 billion yen and employment plan of 1,300 workers by 2014, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported. The new mega Japanese investment plan of Jatoko (Thailand), a newly-set up firm owned by Takashi Hata, will be run on a 160,000-square-kilometre plant in Thailand\'s eastern Chonburi Province, starting from the mid-2013 fiscal year with its production capacity of up to 500,000 units and representing the country\'s first CVT investment. The Japanese investor earlier relocated his CVT overseas production bases to Mexico and China. The company\'s CVT gear has been awarded an honourable medal from Japan\'s mechanical engineer association in the new technological area and has won a prize for the development of a technological innovation at the 61st competition held by Japan\'s automotive engineering association. Its total production capacity has now reached 700,000 units. The CVT is a transmission which can change steplessly through an infinite number of effective gear ratios between maximum and minimum values, contrasting with other mechanical transmissions which offer a fixed number of gear ratios. The flexibility of a CVT allows the driving shaft to maintain a constant angular velocity over a range of output velocities, providing better fuel economy than other transmissions and enabling engines to run at their most efficient revolutions per minute (RPM) for a range of vehicle speeds.