On July 16, the Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Minister of Belarus's Ministry of Industry formally signed an agreement on establishing a large automobile assembly. The joint venture is designed to have an annual production capacity of 120,000 vehicles, being the first joint venture in Belarus established by Chinese auto enterprises.

Establishing this joint venture plant is one of the Sino-Belarus projects signed by Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus, during his visit to China on invitation. Under the agreement, Geely Group, BELAZ Corporation, the world's second largest mining machinery enterprise, and SOYUZ Corporation, Belarus's national parts group joint venture, shall jointly establish Geely (Belarus) Automobile Co., Ltd., aiming to produce 120,000 Geely automobiles annually.

The joint venture is about to initially assemble and produce automobiles of four models, the SUV-GX7, SC7, SC5 and Panda CROSS. On that basis, it will further expand its production capacity, enrich the product line, and enlarge the market to cover the entire CIS market, including Russia and Ukraine.

According to reports, Geely (Belarus) Auto is located in Borisov, Minsk Region. Its construction began in March, 2012. The first sample car rolled off the assembly line in last October and SOP was realized in November. Now, products assembled by Geely (Belarus) have obtained product certifications of Belarus and Russia. In this March, the SC7 has been released in Belarus. It is estimated that the GX7 will come to market by the end of this year.

From the data released by China Association of Automobile Manufactures, Geely has developed rapidly in overseas market in recent years. With its exports continuing to increase, Geely has got the biggest increase in overseas exports among Chinese auto enterprises and gained good market performance, especially in Russia and Belarus. This year, it ranks the first in all Chinese brands, with the sales volume of 14,886 vehicles in Russia and 6,739 in Belarus from January to June. Of all CIS countries, Belarus has a relatively developed heavy industry, while its car industry is still a blank. The agreement signed by Geely and Belarus can accelerate the development of Belarus's car industry. Meanwhile, it will also help Geely occupy CIS market and implement its overseas development strategy.