Chinese automaker Lifan Industry Group has revealed plans to spend US$3.5mn to set up a new vehicle-assembly plant in Ethiopia next year
Lifan general manager Liu Jiang said the move was being planned as the company sought to expand business in Africa.
Jiang added that the company’s Ethiopian unit, Yangfan Motors Plc, may begin manufacturing cars in the Horn of Africa nation and spend as much as US$30mn over five years if sales continued to grow.
Lifan has plans to base its African operations in Ethiopia because of the country’s “good relations” with China, its growing economy, low crime rate and political stability, he explained.
China has remained Ethiopia’s biggest trading partner in recent years, according to the World Bank.
Jiang informed that Yangfan was negotiating a deal with the Chinese-owned Eastern Industry Zone in the Ethiopian town of Dukem and was expecting a concrete decision by February.
He added that the company will earn US$13.2mn from the sale of 800 cars this year and has plans to sell 50 per cent more next year.
