DAMASCUS - Iranian carmaker SAIPA inaugurated a car assembly line in Homs, Syria, on Thursday.
The SAIPA 132 will be manufactured under the name Emesa which is the ancient name for Homs, IRNA reported.
Iranian Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mohammad Saeidikia who is also the chairman of Iran-Syria Joint Economic Cooperation Commission, and Syrian Industry Minister Fouad Issa Aljouni were present at the inaugural ceremony of the production line.
Addressing the ceremony, Aljouni lauded Iran's significant advancement in industrial fields as well as the growing trend of cooperation between Iran and Syria in recent years, and called for the further expansion of bilateral ties.
SAIPA opened a car production line in Hasya district, 150 km north of Damascus, in 2007.
The total investment in this project, with 85 percent share of SAIPA and 15 percent share of the private Hamshoo Company, amounted to $46 million.
The other Iran-Syria joint venture on car production is the Samand sedan car producing plant, which was established at Adra industrial park, 36 kilometers from the Syrian capital of Damascus, and was in fact the first joint automobile production project ever implemented by the Irano-Syrian Company, Siamco.
Iran and Syria have jointly invested $60 million in this project, which was implemented by the engineers of Iran Khodro Co. in 17 months.
Iran is the first country which exported its automobile manufacturing technology to Syria.
Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), the Middle East's largest automaker, launched the first phase of the Samand assembly line in Damascus in 2007.
The plant has the production capacity of about 10,000 cars per annum that could be increased to 30,000 cars by tripling the working shifts.
IKCO has so far produced three national cars named Samand, Miniator, and Runna, the latest was unveiled in April.
© Tehran Times 2009
