The Belarus-China car assembly company BelGee JV (based in Borisov, Minsk region) plans to launch its own car factory in the first half of 2017, Belarusian First Deputy Industry Minister Gennady Svidersky reported.
The construction of a factory by the Belarusian-Chinese car assembly company BelGee is in the final stage, the new premises are ready, the equipment will be commissioned in H1 2017, and the relevant tests will be carried out.
The deputy minister also informed that Belarus’ Unison car assembly factory is building a workshop to perform full-cycle welding and body paintwork operations. The launch of the new facility is due in H1 2017.
As previously reported, Belarus is building a factory to facilitate full-cycle assembly of passenger cars. After the first stage of the project is completed, BelGee will produce 60,000 cars a year. The general designer and general contractor for the BelGee project is China’s CITIC. The project is financed by a Chinese credit.
According to the business plan, as much as $318 million will be invested in the construction of the plant and internal infrastructure and some Br320 billion ($16.426 million) – in the development of external infrastructure.
Upon reaching the designed capacity, the BelGee plant is expected to provide employment for 1,850-1,900 people.
Unison (formerly Ford Union) is a Belarusian-British joint venture, which has been implementing a series of car assembly projects (Samand and KIA passenger cars, Renault Master and Ford Transit minibuses) for more than 15 years. (Prime-TASS/Business World Magazine)