Brasília – The German automaker BMW will start manufacturing cars in Brazil in late 2014. The announcement was made this Monday (22nd) by the company’s Sales and Marketing vice president, Ian Robertson, after a meeting with president Dilma Rousseff and the ministers of Finance, Guido Mantega, of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fernando Pimentel, and Institutional Relations, Ideli Salvatti.
The new plant will be located in the municipality of Araquari, in the state of Santa Catarina, and should create approximately 1,000 direct jobs. Robertson explained that the company will offer training to local businessmen, including training to Brazilian workers at plants in Germany and other countries, “so that by the time we kick off our manufacturing operations, they will be in conditions to manufacture under BMW standards.”
According to Robertson, the municipality was chosen due to local logistics and qualified labour force. The governor of Santa Catarina, Raimundo Colombo, said the company will be granted fiscal incentives, for which a protocol will be signed next week. The plant will receive 200 million euros in investment and is expected to assemble up to 30,000 vehicles per year. the director said production will be in accordance with the new automotive regime implemented by the Brazilian government.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
