TOMSK, April 27 (RIA Novosti) - German carmaker Volkswagen could sign within a month an agreement to build an assembly plant in Russia, the economics minister said Thursday.
"We were happy to hear that Volkswagen has made a final decision to start investment in Russia," German Gref said at a Russian-German economic forum in the West Siberian oil city of Tomsk.
Semi-knocked down production is due to start late 2007 and the plant will annually roll out about 115,000 Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia models, the company announced earlier.
Russia saw a 142% year-on-year rise in Skoda Octavia sales in January-March, to 1,198 cars.
The economic forum is taking place on the sidelines of talks in Tomsk between President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that are likely to focus on bilateral economic cooperation, particularly on energy security, and the Iranian nuclear crisis.
