The Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WHDZ) -- located in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province -- is to cooperate with the Industrial Bank Co on a construction of a new vehicle production and development facility by automaker Geely, according to WHDZ officials.
They said that followed the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement on April 24.
Under the agreement, the bank will provide financing of 5.5 billion yuan ($778 million) for the new Geely plant.
The project, located in WHDZ’s Automobile and Auto Parts Industrial Park, is also being partly funded by Geely Holding Group, a Fortune 500 company.
It will focus on building premium vehicles and is expected to help enhance R&D capabilities, improve operations and reduce the production costs of Lotus cars -- a luxury UK sports car brand now owned by Geely -- in China and boost technological innovation in the automobile sector.
Construction work on the capping of the main structure of the stamping workshop and the assembly shop is scheduled to be completed within the current year.
Construction for the entire project is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
