Brussels VW plant to produce new Audi A1 from 2009

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt announced Friday after a meeting with the management of German car giant Volkswagen that the plant in Forest near Brussels has been assigned the production of the Audi A1 from 2009.

The production of the Audi A1 is expected to involve more than 100,000 cars each year providing an estimated 3,000 job opportunities, which would partly make up for the 4,000 jobs which are to be shed as Volkswagen plans to stop Golf car production at the plant.

Last week the Volkswagen management decided to transfer the production of the Golf from Forest to German plants in Mosel and Wolfsburg by 2008, which means major job losses for Forest.

Verhofstadt and Belgian Employment Minister Peter Van Velthoven received guarantees on Friday that Forest will be allowed to produce the new Audi A1 as of 2009.

But the Belgian government still has to work out a deal with Volkswagen bosses concerning 2007 and 2008 for the Forest employees.

"We expect these to be very hard negotiations," Verhofstadt said.

The Forest plant is currently manufacturing the Volkswagen Polo and the Golf. The plant will only have the Polo left once the production of the Golf has been transferred to Germany at the end of this year. As a result, only about 1,000 out of the current more than 5,000 jobs will remain.

The car maker has announced that it will start making new investments in the Forest plant from 2008 to prepare for the production of the Audi A1.

Source: Xinhua