RIGA - A business hotspot may soon appear in southern Latvia as the German company AKG Thermotechnik Lettland just announced it would invest 2.3 million lats (3.6 million euros) in a car radiator plant in Jelgava.
The company has signed a rental agreement with the Jelgava City Council for 4.6 hectares of land.
At the moment AKG is looking for a company to build the needed 5,100-square-meter plant along with a new office building.
AKG currently owns 10 factories in six countries - Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the U.S.A., China and Turkey. This will be the first AKG plant in Eastern Europe.
The financial director of AKG, Detlef Reinsbeg told the Dienas Bizness daily that the radiators made in Latvia would be sold to its current clients - DaimlerChrysler, Porsche, Ferrari and Atlas Copco - in developed countries and to Russian companies as well.
Reinsberg said he hoped that construction of the plant would be finished by the middle of 2004. The needed production equipment would be either brought from AKG plants in Germany or purchased from another source.
Aluminum processing specialists in Latvia will undergo training in AKG plants in Germany in order to take new jobs with the company. The plant is expected to employ 20 people, and possibly more later.
AKG plans to produce about 80,000 car radiators every year.
According to the Lursoft database, 100 percent of AKG Termotechnik Lettland is owned by Pietcker Dirk, who has invested 381,000 lats in the company's capital.
