Slovakia’s car industry may almost triple annual production by 2007 and has set a goal of making a million vehicles a year as it tries to attract more manufacturers, the nation’s president said, according to a Bloomberg News report.

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The country expects an undisclosed United Kingdom-based motor-industry company to announce plans for a new factory, president Rudolf Schuster said in an interview with Bloomberg News while in Detroit to meet with US motor industry executives. Slovakia, which made 225,000 cars and trucks last year, seeks to build about 600,000 annually by 2007, the report said.


Volkswagen already owns a Slovakian plant that builds Touareg sport-utility vehicles and other models. PSA Peugeot Citroen said in January it would build 300,000 cars annually beginning in 2006 in the country of 5.3 million people, Bloomberg News noted.


Bloomberg News said the Slovakian car industry’s total sales rose 17% to 215.1 billion koruna ($US5.6 billion) last year, according to the Association of Slovak Automotive Industries.


Schuster told Bloomberg that Hyundai Motor executives toured his country and are considering locations for a new plant. Citing a February report in the Hungarian business newspaper Vilaggazdasag, Bloomberg News said that Hyundai plans to invest 1 billion euros ($US1.07 billion) to build a car plant in central Europe, Spain or Portugal.

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CSM Worldwide Eastern Europe analyst Mark Fulthorpe told Bloomberg News that Slovakian labour, with an average annual pay of $US3,500 per person, is less expensive than the neighbouring Czech Republic where annual wages average about $5,700. In Spain, the annual figures rise to $18,000 and $24,000 in Germany, he reportedly added.


Schuster told Bloomberg News that wages should continue to be competitive and wage growth “will take a longer time” even as investment increases because unemployment is 17% in Slovakia.