BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/12/2007

Iran's Samand automobile gaining foothold in Belarus

Source: Press TV

A top Belarusian official says that Iran's national automobile Samand is expected to flood into the former Soviet republic's auto market.

"The Belarusian transportation industry counts much on the production of the sedan car to be produced inside the country," Anatoliy Rusetskiy, the Belarusian industry minister, told Iran-Khodro Managing Director Manouchehr Manteqi.

Rusetskiy gave assurances that his ministry would support the production of the car which is to be turned into a 'national car' in future.

"Belarus can turn into a hub for exporting Samand spare parts into the neighboring countries," Manteqi said.

Iran-Khodro has battered big names such as Japan, China and South Korea to win the license to produce the car in Belarus.

The leading Iranian car factory annually manufactures 1,500 Samand cars in Belarus and anticipates promoting the product to 18,000 within the framework of a five year-term plan which starts from 2009.

Source:

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/dec/1005.html