Deputy managing director (corporate affairs and communications) Byung-Soh Min said India is the second basement for Daewoo Motors and they will try to get maximum advantage out of it.

Min said DMIL has at present huge orders from Egypt and Sri Lanka after the first batch of 300 and 50 vehicles respectively were dispatched last month and hoped that it would not not be difficult to achieve the target.

"We had no problem as we were able to export only because of our quality, safety systems, comfort and style," he said. Daewoo's commitment to India is reiterated by the company's plans for making a fresh investment of $100 million to strengthen its Indian operations which is in addition to the investment of Rs 4,000 crore that has already been made. The total equity base for Daewoo will thus go up to Rs 1,200 crore, he said.

Min said due to production restraints, with capacity of 3,000 vehicles per month compared to 7,000 of Hyundai, "We are facing difficulties in executing existing orders (both domestic and exports) and to cope up with this, we are planning to introduce double shift in our factory at Surajpur in UP from December."

The company is also planning to go in for a fresh recruitment drive to speed up the assembling work of Matiz, he said and added that at present engines and transaxis (gear box units) are imported from the parent company in Korea which is also a kind of restraint.

Commenting on the response of Matiz in European countries, Min said in case of Italy, Matiz cost is about $1000 higher in comparison to Hyundai and even then it managed to increase market share from 50 per cent in 1998-99 to 77.5 per cent between April and August 1999.

Quoting Korean Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) statistics, he said in UK, Daewoo's (Matiz) market share increased to 74.8 per cent during the first five months of current financial year from 61.2 per cent in 1998-99.

Exports of the Matiz underline the emergence of Daewoo Motors India as an export hub and a key growth point in Daewoo's global strategy, he added.

Talking about mid-segment Cielo and luxury segment Nexia variants, Min said despite adverse media coverage due to misinformations campaign by competitors, 90 per cent indigenuous Cielo brand is selling well.

"We are selling 350 Cielos per month on an average."