Poland and General Motors Corp. signed a joint venture Friday to start building GM's Opel cars in Poland beginning next year.
A long-awaited memorandum of understanding was signed by General Motors-Europe, the government's FSO auto plant and the ministries of Industry, Privatization, Finance.FSO - whose initials in Polish stand for Passenger Car Factory - has been looking for a new foreign partner for the past four years. The deal with U.S.-based GM is considered a highly symbolic achievement for Poland in wooing Western investment. Officials hope that the investment will act as a magnet for other U.S. companies to set up business in Poland.
In the agreement, GM-Europe and FSO said they would invest $75 million into a new company at FSO's Warsaw plant to assemble Opel passenger cars. GM was to be the majority owner of the joint venture, but the size of the GM contribution was not announced.