By Alexei Adashkin: The joint Belarusian-Chinese project BelGee is, in fact, the beginning of an automobile engineering branch new to the country. Today, the President has urged to actively use domestic experience and achievements in this sphere.
Chinese Geely cars are assembled in the Minsk region using components provided by Belarusian manufacturers. A joint BelGee enterprise producing passenger cars is planned to launch next year.
The joint Belarusian-Chinese enterprise BelGee was created at the end of 2011 by BelAZ accounting for 50% of the shares and the Geely corporation with 32.5%. The first passenger car was released at the Borisov plant Avtogydrousilitel in February 2013. The enterprise’s annual production capacity is 10,000 cars per year, which is slightly less than half of the total market for new cars in Belarus.
The Belarusian-Chinese project is under special control of Alexander Lukashenko. Last spring, the President personally tested new Geely models.
Today the Palace of Independence has hosted a special meeting on the development of passenger car production. Belarusian mechanical engineering is capable of producing spare parts and technologies for passenger cars; therefore, one of the main demands of the President is the maximum use of the domestic know-how in BelGee production.
Geely was founded nearly thirty years ago. Today, the carmaker is part of 500 strongest companies in the world, with an annual turnover of 24.5 billion dollars. The company is doing a successful car business with a total of fifty countries around the world, including the USA, Russia, Ukraine, EU countries and Southeast Asia. Geely managed to acquire the Swedish company Volvo, as well as the producer of London’s famous cabs. The company currently employs an artist, who previously worked for Aston Martin, Ford, Land Rover and Jaguar. Geely has even created its own network of higher education institutions to prepare highly-skilled professionals.
An ultramodern factory is currently being built between Borisov and Zhodino. The total amount of investments in this project is 318 million dollars. Another 320 billion rubles have been allocated to create an external infrastructure, such as roads, energy and water supply and others. The plant, expected to launch by the end of next year, will create nearly 1,300 jobs at the first stage. Reaching full capacity, it will provide jobs to almost 2,000 professionals.
Already at the launch of the plant, almost every third car part will be manufactured in Belarus. The Government is expecting the level of localisation to reach 50% by the summer of 2018, which should reduce the total cost of the cars and greatly simplify their exports within the Eurasian Economic Union.
In addition to the existing models - the crossover, sedan and hatchback - the plant located near Borisov will produce a new flagship the name of which is kept secret.
The popularity of the new Belarusian-Chinese cars is doubtless. A year after the production launch in Belarus, Geely took the fourth place among the most popular car brands among the Belarusians.
The domestic car industry is expanding its horizons and exploring a new direction. Consumer patriotism can significantly accelerate model range expansion.
