The Hyundai Business Group will build a personal computer (PC) plant
in the Maritime Province of Siberia in a joint venture, industry sources
say.
To facilitate the project, the Hyundai group was approved on Jan. 15
by the Soviet Chamber of Commerce & Industry to set up a branch in
Moscow.
A letter of intent concerning this joint-venture project was exchanged
late last year in Seoul between the two sides when a top Soviet
forestry official of the Maritime Province visited Korea, it was
belatedly learned.
According to the letter of intent, a PC plant will be erected near
Vladivostok in a 50-50 joint venture to produce annually 120,000 units
of 16-bit At and XT model personal computers which are compatible with
IBM PCs, all for sale in the Soviet Union.
Although Hyundai''s exact investment scale has yet to be decided, the
Hyundai group reportedly plans to invest about $4 million - $5 million
in the project.
A group of working-level officials of Hyundai Corp., the trading
arm of the Hyundai Business Group, is now in the Soviet Union for
detailed discussions on the project.
The Hyundai group plans to select a plant site and commence
construction of the plant as soon as its joint-venture plan is approved
by the Seoul and Moscow governments.
When the plant is dedicated, Hyundai Electronics will supply main
boards, control boards and other key components such as hard disks as
well as testing devices to the plant for assembly of finished PCs.
The Hyundai group wants to put the proposed PC plant into commercial
operation beginning next year at the earliest.
Through its Moscow branch, the Hyundai group will be able to push
ahead with its ventures in the Soviet Union, including a joint
forestry development project, construction of a ship repair yard in
Nakhodka, a coal mine development project and construction of a
soap plant with an annual capacity of 21,000 tons.