This year the JV General Motors Uzbekistan (GM Uzbekistan) will reach the capacity of 200 thousand motor cars a year. In future its annual output is to be 250 thousand. At the press conference in Tashkent the GM Uzbekistan’s deputy director-general Hery Weston emphasized in his speech on that.

“The Asaka car factory is to output exclusive car models which are not produced in any General Motors (GM) companies functioning in 35 countries of the world,” H. Weston said. “We should note that the GM has developed car co-production in the CIS and Eastern Europe but the GM Uzbekistan has the highest capacity among six similar GM enterprises in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Poland.”

The chief executive of JSC Uzavtosanoat Ulugbek Rozukulov informs the UT that technical results, analytical works as well as statistical rates witness the GM Uzbekistan’s opportunity to reach high production capacity in 2008. For instance, between January and April this year the Asaka car factory’s output grew 23.3% in comparison with that of 2007 and was over 61 thousand cars. This output growth rate is to keep on because at the moment the company is optimizing its production. Particularly, it is constructing a new punching shop.

We should mention that the GM Uzbekistan was set up last autumn to produce three Chevrolet car models: Captiva, Epica and Tacuma. Its founders are JSC Uzavtosanoat having shareholding of 75% in the chartered capital and the world’s biggest corporation, leading car manufacturer General Motors whose share in the GM Uzbekistan is 25% that may reach 40% in future.

Today the Asaka car factory assembles Captica, Epica and Tacuma and in near three years it will get full production due to further production localization which was 60% last year. The press conference noted that localization rate would rapidly grow and Uzbek spare part manufacturers would have an opportunity to enter the world market. It promises good profits to both manufacturers and country in whole, said top managers of General Motors and GM Uzbekistan at the press conference. For instance, last year Uzbekistan’s output of spare parts increased 24.6% and this year it kept such a positive growth rate.

It was mentioned above that in near time the GM Uzbekistan plans to make its annual output 250 thousand off-roads and sedans including Cadillac. Now experts are estimating the necessary investment inflow. In addition, the company’s management should pay more attention to the problem of improving efficiency and productivity by practicing five principles of GM. It is involvement of people, standardization, built-in quality, effective functioning and constant improvement.

The General Motors’ authorities focus on the fact that the Uzbek government realizes the role of automobile industry in the development of national economy in whole and the country has properly-focused industrial policy, H. Weston stressed. Uzbekistan having vast personnel capacity assures that the GM Uzbekistan is to have a significant impact on strengthening of General Motors’ positions in the world market, especially, Europe.

The company’s analysts predict that the export of Uzbek sedans and off-roads to CIS countries is to grow 1.7 times by 2012. If last year the Uzbek market’s demand for GM motor cars was nearly 100 thousand, by 2012, experts evaluate, the ratio is to reach 2 million. One of the representatives of GM’s top management notes that these figures show increasing welfare of Uzbek citizens in this period.

"Uzbekistan today"