The factory will create industrial opportunities for support industries
H. E. Abdullah Ahmed Zainal, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saudi industrial Property Authority "MODON" signed an agreement with the president of the World Isuzu Motors Mr. Susumu Hossuy in the presence of the Director General of the Saudi industrial Property Authority (MODON) Dr. Tawfig Bin Fawzan Alrabiah, His Excellency the President of the Industrial Cluster Program Eng. Azzam Shalabi and the Japanese Ambassador to the Kingdom, to establish an integrated factory for the production of cars and light, medium and heavy trucks. MODON has allocated 120,000 square meters of land in Dammam 2nd. Industrial City for the establishment of this project.
The project is one of the most important projects which has attracted nationalization of world-class technology in the industry, especially the nationalization of automobile technology through one of the largest specialized Japanese companies. The project is one of the value added projects, which will accrue to the industrial sector in the Kingdom to open areas of employment and investment opportunities in the complementary industries. The volume of investment in this project is estimated at 500 million Saudi riyals.
H.E. the Minister said, "The Kingdom's market is attractive for the establishment of automobile factories due to the economic benefits, incentives, financial facilities, qualified manpower, integrated infrastructure and supporting industries. In addition to that, the Saudi market is one of the strongest markets in the region and in terms of the number of trucks consumed, which made the economic feasibility of the project motivating for the establishment of the factory in the Kingdom. The regional markets will also import trucks from the Kingdom and therefore the Kingdom will be one of the exporting countries of cars and trucks".
On this occasion, Director General of MODON Dr. Alrabiah announced: "ISUZU trucks manufacturing project is a leading project in the region, which is not restricted just to assembly of imported parts, but it will be an integrated factory that will manufacture many parts of the truck in the Kingdom and will transfer the high-tech auto industry, as well as provide international experiences in the production of cars and trucks. It will create investment opportunities for the establishment of factories or new production lines in the existing factories for the production of parts and accessories of cars, which will be announced later, such as: batteries, auto glass, filters, oil and some metal, electrical and plastic parts as well as other parts that are manufactured locally in the existing factories or future factories".
Dr. Alrabiah added: We hereby emphasize that MODON, in its development plan of the industrial cities, has allocated a large area to manufacture motors in Dammam, Sudair and other industrial cities spread all over the Kingdom. These projects are the first step to starting an integrated national auto industry. It is to be noted that studies indicate that the Kingdom is the biggest Arab country importing motors, where it imports 600,000 cars annually and there are about 8 million cars in the Kingdom.
On his part, the Project Manager at MODON Mr. Qusay Al AbdulKarim added that "the start of production will be in the fourth quarter of 2012 with production of 600 medium-size transporting trucks. The expansion of the phases of the project will continue to reach 25,000 transporting trucks annually of various types in the beginning of the year 2017. The company will export 40% of its production to world markets, and it is expected that the project will create 800 jobs.
It is worth mentioning, that MODON currently oversees 20 industrial cities existing in different regions of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh 1 & 2, Jeddah 1 & 2, Dammam 1 & 2, Makkah, Madinah, Qassim, Al-Ahsa, Assir, Al-Jouf, Tabuk, Hail, Najran, Jazan, Al-Kharj and Ar'ar, in addition to Sudair City for Industry and Business, and Rabigh complex for plastic industries). Development contracts of five new cities were signed which include: Riyadh 3rd., Zulfi, Shaqraa', Taif, and Baha. Development of designs and plans for other cities are currently underway to include Jeddah 3rd., Dammam 3rd., Salwa, Al-Ahsa 2nd., Hafr Al-Batin and the Pharmaceutical Industry in Al-Oyayna.
The industrial cities are regarded as the infrastructure to accommodate industrial projects which have contributed to the accommodation of 3000 industrial projects, which represent 60% of the Saudi factories with investments exceeding 250 billion riyals. MODON receives the applications for obtaining land electronically through its website www.modon.gov.sa, where land is available for industrial projects, residential uses, commercial activities and marketing exhibitions, services centers and public facilities that provide its services at promotional prices, which provides multiple options to all local businessmen, Gulf and foreign businessmen to invest in various available opportunities, whether in industrial, residential, commercial or service sectors.
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© Press Release 2011
