TANGIERS (AFP) — Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn on Saturday signed a deal to build an assembly plant here, with a planned investment of one billion euros (1.36 billion dollars) and final capacity of 400,000 vehicles.
"The sum of the capacity investments planned for this project is today estimated at 600 million euros, with a first phase at 350 million euros," Ghosn told a news conference here.
"Added to this sum are specific investments of between 200 and 400 million euros, depending on the variety of vehicles produced," he said in Tangiers after signing the protocol with Prime Minister Driss Jettou, in the presence of King Mohammed VI.
"It's the largest investment made together by Renault and Nissan, because Nissan has already invested larger sums alone in China," Ghosn added.
The agreement is due to be ratified at the end of the year.
"The factory will build vehicles similar to the Renault Logan and a Nissan model which does not currently exist in its range, but which will be a small, very economical vehicle," Ghosn said.
"From the start we aimed for a factory with the best world standards to be able to export from this base to the whole world."
The factory is due to have an operational capacity of 200,000 vehicles from 2010, and to create almost 6,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs, according to a company statement.
It is to be built on a 300-hectare (741-acre) site in northern Morocco, linked by road and rail to the Tanger-Med port, the Moroccan prime minister said.
"This project will unquestionably constitute one of the most significant industrial achievements of the kingdom," Jettou added.
Renault is already present in Morocco with its 80 percent subsidiary Somaca, which holds 30 percent of the Moroccan market.
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