Serbia's only car manufacturer, Zastava of Kragujevac, Thursday signed an agreement with General Motors Co. to assemble Opel Astra cars.

The Zastava factory is scheduled to begin assembly line production of Opel Astra Classic cars in the third quarter of 2008, the Serbian B92 Belgrade radio reported.

Bozidar Djelic, Serbian deputy prime minister, told reporters in Belgrade that under the five-year agreement with GMC the Serbian factory will produce 10,000 Opel Astra cars annually by 2012.

Until production begins the government will allow the Zastava plant, in the central Serbian town of Kragujevac, to import tax free 3,300 Opel Astras by the end of this year, and another 5,000 cars in 2008, for sale.

Zastava began making small Italian Fiat cars under license in the 1950s but shut down almost all production in the late 1980s after assembling Yugoslav-designed Yugo cars. Since then it has been assembling several hundred cars a year, most recently Fiat Puntos, while seeking a strategic partner to restart full-scale production of cars.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 19 July 2007   

Source: UPI-1-20070719-13185600-bc-serbia-gmcars.xml

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