Qingdao-based?Haier Group, China's biggest maker of household appliances, has opened a new refrigerator factory in Kamsky Industrial Park, Naberezhnye Chelny, an important industrial city in the Russian province of Tatarstan.

The new plant is the first joint Sino-Russian business project in a non-energy field in response?to increasing demand from the European market.

Spanning 24,500 square meters,?the plant?will entail up to $55 million in investment, of which $39.1 million have been invested already to set up the plant. The rest will be invested?in buying components and product research and development.

At present, there are already 248 staff in the new plant of?Naberezhnye Chelny. By 2017, Haier plans to employ 500 professionals at this factory, and another 1,200 jobs will be created by outsourcing business.