VWSA’s assembly plant in Rwanda is a vital regional step, says Paul Kagame
Volkswagen SA’s creation of a small-scale vehicle assembly plant in Rwanda was an important step in the development of a regional manufacturing base, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Wednesday. Apart from the vehicles to be built at the Rwandan operation, the second plant outside SA, it will in a world first for the global VW group help create local mobility services such as taxis and car-sharing. In 2016 it established an assembly joint venture with Kenya. The new plant, which has a start-up annual capacity of 5,000 vehicles but will be able to reach 10,000, will reassemble vehicle kits sent from SA. Most are expected to be the Polo, manufactured at VWSA’s Uitenhage factory in the Eastern Cape, but will also include the Tiguan, Passat, Amarok and Teramont, built at other VW plants. “We need an integrated regional manufacturing base. This is a new chapter in the story of Rwanda’s economic transformation,” Kagame said. VWSA MD Thomas Schaefer said Rwanda could become a “pillar” ...
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