( dpa )- Volkswagen plans to invest 1 billion dollars in its plant in Mexico until 2010, the German firm said Friday during celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the construction of the New Beetle.
In the presence of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn said at the plant in Puebla - some 120 kilometres east of the Mexican capital - that the investment will go towards the production of the Bora/Jetta model, and towards the optimization of the plant's capacity.
Calderon stressed the importance that the Volkswagen plant in Puebla has for the Mexican economy as a whole.
According to the firm's own data, Volkswagen has built 7 million vehicles in Puebla , including 1 million units of the New Beetle.
This year, the firm will seek to beat the record set in 2000, when 425,000 Volkswagen vehicles were assembled in Mexico. The Puebla plant produces the models Bora/Jetta , Golf Variant and New Beetle. The latter is produced exclusively in Mexico for the world market.
In the period 2003-2007 Volkswagen invested some 2 billion dollars in the factory, which employs 16,000 people. An additional 230 firms with some 50,000 employees in total supply their products to Volkswagen in Mexico.