"Volkswagen" negotiates about purchase of "Zastava’s" automobile factory

The delegation of "Volkswagen", the largest manufacturer of passenger vehicles in Europe, visited "Zastava" yesterday (March 19, 2008) and talked with the management of the Kragujevac factory and the authorized people in the Ministry of Economy behind the closed door about forthcoming privatization of the Automobile factory.

Having been introduced to the tender terms, the representatives of "Volkswagen" were presented the production potentials of the units.

This visit put an end to the mystery of who hides behind “large European company interested in procurement of Zastava’s automobile factory". The mystery was even greater if we know that, in the meantime, Zastava reestablished cooperation with Fiat, as well as with General Motors (through Opel), and that Zastava will start producing Opel’s model "astra classic" this year.

There were also some contacts with Toyota and some other Japanese companies and Ford, but that US company recently bought a company in Romania and gave up its visit to Kragujevac. Mercedes, Audi and similar companies were not the options because these are the companies that produce vehicles of higher class.