Talks with "General Motors" about production of automobiles in Serbia to end in October 2008

- The talks between the representatives of the Ministry of Economy and US "General Motors" about realization of the contract on assembling of "opel astra classic" should be completed by the end of October - said Zoran Radojević, the Director General of "Zastava vozila".

- Both sides are interested in realization of the five-year contract that was signed last year - said Radojević and added that "several locations in Serbia are offered as a possible solution. One of them is in Kragujevac, but not in the grounds of "Zastava".

He pointed out that the details of the contract with "Fiat", which was signed on September 29, should be known in about 10 days. He also added that the expert teams of that Italian company were staying in "Zastava". Radojević said that the intensive works for realization of the contract would start at the beginning of year 2009 and the workers of "Zastava" and significant number of workers from other local companies would be engaged in them.

- The return of "Fiat" creates great opportunity for numerous local suppliers of "Zastava" because the production will amount to 200,000 - 300,000 automobiles per year - said Radojević and invited former and current partners to start negotiations with the suppliers of "Fiat", which would open their own branch offices or joint ventures in Kragujevac at the beginning of the year 2009. He is of the opinion that the number of people who will be hired in the new automobile factory in Kragujevac in the first year will be larger than expected. He also said that "once the annual production of 200,000 automobiles is achieved, number of the workers in the factory will reach 5,000".