Bayerische Motoren Werke AG chief China representative Dong Xianqian said he does not believe there are any particular problems holding up approval for the company's plan to launch a car-manufacturing joint venture with Brilliance China Group.
It is "just a matter of time" before the venture receives approval from the State Development Planning Commission, Dong told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference on EU/China IT cooperation.
Ma Qingsheng, public relations manager for BMW in China said, "we are confident approval will not be long," but was unable to be more specific.
He noted that some car manufacturing ventures in China have taken up to eight years to gain government approval.
"We expect this project's approval will be shorter than that, but we still have to wait," Ma said.
In March of last year, the China Daily cited BMW as saying that the planned venture would begin building its production facility in late 2001 or early 2002.
The venture, in which BMW and Brilliance China would each hold 50-percent stakes, would initially assemble 8,000-10,000 BMW three and five series cars per year, the newspaper said.
Ma said BMW, which is licenced to sell its 745LI and 735LI model cars in China, has received orders for 200 of its seven series cars so far this year.
He said he cannot give a forecast for the number of cars it will sell in China this year, since the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is responsible for issuing the annual quotas for car imports, has yet to announce the size of the car import quotas for this year.
A report in the China Daily in February cited a MOFTEC official as saying that the overall quota for the import of cars and car parts will be US$8 billion this year, up 15 percent from 2001.
(China Daily April 03, 2002)
