MOSCOW, May 10 (RIA Novosti) - On June 8-10, the government of the Kaluga Region (Central Russia) is planning to sign an investment agreement with Sweden's Volvo Group on building an assembly plant in the region in 2009 to produce Volvo and Renault trucks, said Nikolai Lyubimov, the Kaluga Region's minister of economic development.
He said that the parties had already reached agreement on this project and signed a memorandum of understanding which stipulates that the Volvo plant in the Kaluga Region will be built on an area of 40 hectares (100 acres).
Investment in the plant, which is to produce 10,000 Volvo trucks and 5,000 Renault trucks annually, will amount to about €100 million.
Volvo has an assembly line near Zelenograd (Moscow Region) operating since 2003. However, the line's production capacity is only 500 vehicles a year and it is overloaded now.
Sales of Volvo Car Russia, a Volvo subsidiary in this country, have been growing steadily: 3,320 vehicles were sold in Russia in the first quarter of 2007, up 140% from last year. The best selling Volvo cars in Russia in the first quarter were Volvo XC90 offroaders (866 vehicles were sold), Volvo S60 cars (638) and Volvo S80 cars (487).
