Leading German automobile manufacturer, Volkswagen has once again renewed its call to open a manufacturing plant in the Kurunegala district soon.
This is mainly targeting exports to both South Asian and African countries. The company hopes to manufacture vans and VWs popular Jetta and Passat vehicles at the proposed plant in Sri Lanka.
Deputy Economic Policy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva said they are expected to ink a deal with this German company next month.“After so many years we are getting a Fortune 500 company to start investing in Sri Lanka,” de Silva told a forum of professionals in Colombo.
De Silva said in January that Volkswagen had tried to set up a factory several years ago but did not materialise.
Meanwhile Deputy Investment Promotions Minister Eran Wickremeratne alleged that German investors including Volkswagen did not invest in Sri Lanka in the recent past because former regime demanded bribes and commissions to approve their projects. The Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. In 2014, the Group increased the number of vehicles delivered to customers to 10.137 million (2013: 9.731 million).
The share of the world passenger car market amounts to 12.9 percent. Group sales revenue in 2014 totaled €202 billion (2013: €197 billion), while profit after tax amounted to €11.1 billion (2013: €9.1 billion).
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Germany, Karunatilleke Amunugama said that one of the world’s largest aviation support companies, Lufthansa Technik is in talks with him to invest in Mattala for an airline repairing and service centre.(MRO)
Lufthansa Technik is the leading provider of maintenance, repair, overhaul and modification services for aircraft. Lufthansa Technik is an internationally licensed maintenance, production and development organization and serves about 800 customers worldwide.