Volkswagen to build car plant in Algeria: newspaper

Germany’s automaker will construct a plant in Algeria with a capacity of 100,000 cars a year at a cost of 170 million euros (Dh1.3 billion), a newspaper in the North African Arab country reported on Wednesday.

Volkswagen officials met Algerian Minister of Industry and Mines Abdul Salam Bushoarb in the capital Algiers on Tuesday and ‘officially’ submitted a request to build the plant in the Northern Relizane province, the Arabic language daily Al Mihwar said.

“The project will start production in 2017…the minister promised to offer the same incentives provided to the French car makers Renault and Peugeot,” the paper said, quoting Murad Alami, general manager of Sovac, Volkswagen’s exclusive representative in Algeria.

He did not mention when the project would be launched but said it would be constructed on an area of 150 hectare (1.5 million square metres) and would provide 5,300 jobs.

The paper quoted Bushoarb as saying there would be more talks with Volkswagen, adding that the project would produce the classic Polo, Skoda Octavia and pick-up Amarok.

“We are open to this partnership because we cannot imagine mechanical industries in Algeria without a German partner…We hope that the negotiations with the Germans will produce an agreement soon,” he said.

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