President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Western Automobile Assembly Factory in Kuliyapitiya.

Addressing the gathering during the event, the PM said that 20,000 new employment opportunities will be created through mega development projects implemented within the week while more will follow int he future.

Germany’s famous car-maker Volkswagen had signed an agreement with the Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BOI) to establish a USD 26.5 million investment motorcar assembling plant in the island.  

This assembling plant is about to set up on a 30 acre land at Kuliyapitiya and will provide some 200 employment opportunities, according to reports. 

German specialists also plan to set up a training centre within this assembling plant to train the Sri Lankans in motorcar assembling. 

The investor will assemble diesel powered vehicles in the 1000 cc to 2000 cc category including passenger cars, Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV), Multi Utility Vehicles (MUV) and commercial vehicles.

Initially these vehicles would be marketed locally for a period of 3 years and thereafter the vehicles manufactured will be exported to overseas markets.