GM signs deal with Serbs to ssemble Opel |
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Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:11
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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - General Motors Corp. signed a deal Thursday for Serbia's only car factory to begin assembling an Opel model next year, officials said.The Opel Astra Classic would be assembled at the Zastava Automobili factory in Kragujevac, central Serbia, said Duncan Aldred, a GM official for central and eastern Europe. Germany-based Opel is part of the GM group.The deal would lead to lower prices for the Astra Classic on the Serbian market, from about euro12,800 ($17,700) today to about euro10,800 (US$14,900), Aldred said.It also gives troubled Zastava -- once a Balkan giant, making the boxy Yugo car exported to the U.S. in the 1980s -- a chance to recover, after operations were interrupted by the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.Zastava today assembles a Fiat Punto model under the name of Zastava 10.Under the deal with GM, it would build 10,000 Astra Classics by 2010, Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said.'This is a huge chance and responsibility for Zastava,' Djelic said.Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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