12 April 2016 08:23 am
“Through the successful facilitation by Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Chairman Upul Jayasuriya and his officials, working closely with the Lands Ministry, a land in the Kuliyapitiya area was secured for setting up the Volkswagen assembly plant in Sri Lanka,” a BoI statement said.
It further said the land would be taken over by the BoI to be handed over to Senok Automobiles (Pvt.) Ltd, the local partner and the agent of Volkswagen vehicles in Sri Lanka.
According to the BoI, Volkswagen will assemble vehicles in the 1000 cc to 2000 cc category in the proposed plant in Kuliyapitiya.
These vehicles will be diesel powered and include passenger cars, sport utility vehicles (SUV), multi-utility vehicles (MUV) or commercial vehicles.
Initially these vehicles would be marketed locally for a period of three years and thereafter the vehicles manufactured will be exported to overseas markets.
The BoI said there is also a potential for exporting vehicles which would be petrol/electric/hybrid to be built without the concessions that have been given for assembling diesel vehicles.
The total value of this project is an investment of US $ 26.5 million of which US $ 21.5 million will be invested in fixed assets within a period of 24 months.
“The BoI is very keen to attract other leading automobile manufacturers into the country as the industry creates opportunities for the creation of local component manufacturers that can supply the building of a complex product such as passenger car,” the BoI said.
Volkswagen is a leading German automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1937 and produces cars, trucks and buses. The company revenue was Euro 197 billion in 2013. It is best known for iconic models such as Beetle, Golf and Passat.