BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 27
By Ilkin Seyfaddini – Trend:
With the support of the government of Uzbekistan and thanks to the efforts of the automotive industry on the whole, production has been maintained and, as a result, job losses have been avoided, a spokesperson of Uzavtosanoat JSC told Trend in an interview.
"According to the statistics, in total, at the end of the first quarter of 2020, the production of Uzavtosanoat cars has increased by 27.1 percent to 73 500 units compared to the first quarter of 2019. In April this year, as of April 22, more than 15 600 cars were produced", the spokesperson noted.
According to the company's representative, necessary measures have been taken at all enterprises of the industry to protect the health of employees, prevent the spread of coronavirus and organize the work. All employees are provided with individual protective equipment, medical workers are on duty at the enterprises, and disinfection with the help of special sprayers and quartz lamps is carried out.
Furthermore, another priority task of Uzavtosanoat is to minimize the need for people to leave home. For these purposes, online lending, installments and home delivery of cars and other conditions for the customers were introduced.
"In the current economic situation, taking into account the forecast of a 30-40 percent decline in the automotive industry worldwide, it is important to maintain production at the same level. The government of Uzbekistan has provided additional 1.5 trillion soum ($147.2 million) to support the production of the automotive industry, the banks have been given recommendations on the allocation of additional resources for car loans and the financing of the projects on renewal of the car fleet of state organizations is resumed," said the representative.
According to the spokesperson, in 2020, Uzavtosanoat begins preparations for the launch of the project to produce other new models on a single platform.
"By 2023, it is planned to stop production of Chevrolet Spark, Nexia, Cobalt and Gentra cars. These models will be replaced by a new global platform, on the basis of which several models, including Chevrolet Onix, will be produced. Withdrawal of old models will occur not at once, this process will be gradual," she said.
"The production of cars under the Ravon brand will gradually shift to the Chevrolet brand by the end of 2020. The first models that have become available since April in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus under Chevrolet brand name are Spark, Nexia and Cobalt," said the representative.
In addition, according to her, by the end of 2020, company plans to use additional tools to increase and stimulate demand both in the domestic and foreign markets.
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