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| Friday, 25 July 2003 |
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Chevrolet to set up manufacturing plant here by Ravi Ladduwahetty American motor giant Chevrolet, through an Australian company, will set up a manufacturing plant in Colombo where Left Hand Drive Cars (LHD) will be converted into Right Hand Drive (RHD) for re-export to the Far East. Chevrolet Australia (which has no corporate alliances with the US giant) will be importing these cars from Texas into its wholly owned Sri Lankan company for conversion and re-export to Singapore, Malaysia, China and Australia, the company's Managing Director Peter. N. Hill told the Daily News yesterday. He said that there was a big demand for the Right Hand Drive Chevrolets in Australia and the Far East and that his company will be importing these cars from Texas into Sri Lanka for the project, he told this newspaper prior to the signing of the investment agreement with the Board of Investment (BOI). The US motor giant has plants has manufacturing plants in Texas, Detroit and Michigan and Texas is a manufacturing base which has an annual output of 1.7 million cars but the demand in the United States for the RHD cars is a mere 300-400. The decision to import these cars from Texas is that they are relatively rust free due to the dry climate prevailing there, he said. Chevrolet Australia will be setting up its manufacturing plant at Peliyagoda spanning 10,000 square feet with an initial investment of Rs. 71.8 million. The operations will commence in August/ September and will initially convert six cars. "We hope to increase the Colombo output to around 550 cars per annum at the end of two years," he said. One of the main reasons for the company to establish its plant in Sri lanka was the inability to procure a competent workforce in Melbourne Australia of which the output is 140 cars. He paid tribute to the Sri Lankan workforce as intelligent and ruthlessly honest. The company will also be training Sri Lankans for employment in this venture which will also enable them even to procure employment overseas. The equipment for the plant will be arriving in stages on July 26, August 3, 8 and 10 which will enable the company to commence operations in September. He also described the BOI as very cooperative and added that the BOI coordinated the project expeditiously with the minimum inconveniences. BOI Chairman/Director General Arjunna Mahendran told the Daily News that this was the first automotive export project to come as a Foreign Direct Investment in recent times and that it was gratifying that Sri Lanka had procured this investment due to its strategic geographical location. He said that this type of venture would extricate Sri Lanka's dependence on the apparel sector and also to diversify the country's export base. He said that there was abundant scope for Sri Lanka's automotive industry to be developed as an export base in the wake of the potential of the neighbouring Indian market as well. BOI's Deputy Director General Santhusht Jayasuriya said that the approval of the Ceylon Motor Traders Association has been granted for this project which means that there is no conflict of interests like in previous instances. |
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