Last week, Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motors (GWM) signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government to set up a manufacturing facility at Talegaon. Now, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government has put the investment for GWM along with two other Chinese companies on hold. The three projects worth Rs 5,000 crore have been shelved for now following the violent clash between India and China at Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. Maharashtra’s Industry Minister Subhas Desai stated that the decision was taken in consultation with the centre which has advised to not sign any further agreements with Chinese companies.
Besides GWM, the other two deals put on hold in Maharashtra are projects with Hengli Engineering and PMI Electro Mobility Solutions JV with Photon. These were signed under the Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 mission which is an attempt to revive the economy post coronavirus. A total of 12 agreements were signed with companies from Singapore, South Korea, and several others. The government is now processing only nine agreements.
The signing-in ceremony for GWM manufacturing plant was held on 16 July via a virtual meeting between James Yang – President, & Parker Shi – Managing Director of the Indian subsidiary of GWM, along with Sun Weidong – Chinese Ambassador and Minister of Industries, Maharashtra Subhash Desai in the presence CM Uddhav Thackeray.
Also read: Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motors to set up plant in Talegaon: Signs MoU with Maharashtra govt
During the signing ceremony, Parker Shi mentioned that GWM has committed to spending US$ 1 billion worth of investments in India in a phased manner, directed towards manufacturing, R&D centre, supply chain and providing jobs to over 3000 people in a phased manner.
GWM had signed an agreement to acquire the plant in Talegaon from General Motors in January this year. The factory has facilities like logistics distribution and training centres, project management building, administrative office building, and public facilities centre.
