KARACHI: The Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) has awarded brownfield status to Daehan Dewan Motor Company/Dewan Farooque Motor Ltd under the Auto Development Policy (ADP) 2016-21.

Dewan had applied for revival of its car assembly plant in order to produce light commercial vehicles (LCVs) and sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

Dewan Farooque Motors Ltd Chief Operating Officer Waseemul Haq Ansari told Dawn on Thursday that a joint venture agreement had already been signed between Kolao Group of Korea and Yousuf Dewan Companies last year carrying a joint initial investment of Rs700 million. Besides, a technical licence agreement (TLA) was also signed between Daehan Dewan Motor Company and Ssangyong of Korea.

The company plans to start production of Daehan Shehzore dual-wheel vehicle in February followed by single-wheel Shehzore within two to three months, he said.

In addition to the above, the company aims to roll out small and heavy trucks of Daehan brands along with SUV Tivoli of Ssangyong brand in the last quarter of this calendar year, he disclosed.

The local company and its foreign principal would decide in the next 10 days about the price of vehicle and number of units to be produced with a detailed business plan, Waseem said.

Brownfield category is basically for the revival of an existing assembly manufacturing facilities that is non-operational or closed on or before July 1, 2013.

He said initially the project would create an additional employment of 450-500 persons and the same would be gradually raised with the increase in production.

Waseem believed with the support of Engineering Development Board (EDB) and the Ministry of Industries, the local volume of automobiles would jump significantly as planned in AIDP 2016-21.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2018