The officials at the ceremony in Suzhou in China.
DOHA: An official delegation from Karwa Motors LLC and SEMAC Oman has received the general layout and final process design of the new Karwa Motors plant, during an event held on April 16, in Suzhou, China.
The handover ceremony was attended by Jassim Al Khayat and Salim Al Waheibi, Board Members of Karwa Motors; Huang Shuping, Managing Director of Higer Bus Company; Liu Shixin, General Manager of MMI Planning Institute IX Ltd; and the local consultant SEMAC Oman represented by its General Manager Solomon Moses.
Karwa Motors LLC is a joint strategic collaboration between the State of Qatar and Sultanate of Oman, represented by Mowasalat, Qatar national transport provider (owing 70% of Karwa Motors’ shares), and Oman Investment Fund, which is a sovereign wealth fund in Oman (owing the remaining 30% of shares).
Groundbreaking ceremony of the project was held on November 30, 2017, during which the official website of Karwa Motors was also launched.
The two parties will invest about $90m in the first phase of the project, which features the ability to become an automotive-based manufacturing cluster in Duqm over the long term.
The project has made rapid progress in the last few months, by appointing all the major stakeholders: The Chinese Higer Bus Company as Technology partner, MMI Design Institute as Process Design consultant and SEMAC Oman as Local Civil design consultant.
The greenfield project will come up on a 500,000-sqm site located not far from a world-scale multipurpose port currently being developed at Duqm, which will be first of its kind in Oman.
The plant is initially planned for a production capacity of 1,000 buses a year utilising 220,000 sqm of land, which can increase up to 3,000 buses per annum in a phased expansion based on market demand. The state-of-the-art facility will be initially equipped for assembly of buses and coaches.
