MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator...
A dozen similar projects are planned for the next three years as well. By now, almost all the key players in the international car-manufacturing market have opened production facilities in Russia, largely due to the recent industrial policy pursued by the two agencies responsible for the local auto industry's development - the Ministry of Industry and Energy and the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade. However, it will only be truly successful when auto part plants are mushrooming in Russia along with the assembly operations.
On November 28, major German carmaker Volkswagen said it officially commissioned its assembly plant near Kaluga in central European Russia.
Volkswagen intends to assemble seven VW and Skoda models at the Kaluga plant. The total projected capacity of the plant, 150,000 cars a year, may be doubled in the future. This may be one of the largest foreign car assembly projects in Russia, but it is not the only one.