GM to invest $3b in China

GM to invest $3b in China

BEIJING (AFP): U.S. auto giant General Motors Corp. (GM) said yesterday it hoped to raise investments in China to US$3 billion by 1999 from $2 billion targeted for next year.

GM spokesman Pat Hawkins said the U.S. company was committed to investing around $2 billion in China by June 1998, including a $1.5 billion manufacturing project in Shanghai.

Hawkins told AFP that GM was currently in negotiations with China for several more car and components projects worth an additional one billion dollars. She declined to give any details on the planned ventures.

"If new projects in negotiations come to realization, it could be an additional $1 billion by 1999," Hawkins said.

GM vice president Rudolph Schlais said the Shanghai project and the additional ventures would make the U.S. automaker the biggest single U.S. investor in China and one of country's top three foreign investors.