Volkswagen Group South Africa Managing Director and head of Volkswagen in Sub-Saharan Africa, Thomas Schaefer, makes his first visit to Angola, amid negotiations for the installation of a vehicle assembly plant for the VW brand.
While in Luanda, in addition to visiting the proposed assembling unit site, Thomas Schaefer held a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Transport, the Angola Investment and Export Promotion Agency (AIPEX) and the ZEE EP.
Thomas Schaefer also participated in the Angola-Germany Business Forum, as part of the visit to Angola by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
For the manager António Henriques da Silva, “attracting Volkswagen to invest in our country will contribute to a large extent to the diversificationof our economy, job creation and leveraging, mainly the automobile sector, making its offer more varied. We are talking about an industry with branches in othersectors, whose realization will contribute to the creation of newbusiness opportunities for local entrepreneurs, with a positive impact on our economy, in the transfer of technology and know-how,” he stressed.
Volkswagen Group South Africa is a subsidiary of VolkswagenAktiengessellschaft (VWAG) in Germany. In 2019, it produced 161 954 vehicles, achieving an all-time production record for the company’s plant in South Africa. Of the 161 954 vehicles, 108 422 were manufactured for export and 53 532 were produced for the South African market. The company employs more than 4,000 people at the Port Elizabeth plant, in South Africa.