No plans to ban import of right hand drive cars to Russia - Kremlin official
VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 25 (Interfax) - The Russian presidential chief-of-staff, Sergei Ivanov, has said Russia does not plan to impose a ban on imports of vehicles from Japan.
"We have no plans to ban Japanese right hand drive cars. Such measures are not on the agenda," Ivanov told reporters on Thursday.
Ivanov said he hears rumors about alleged plans to ban the import of such vehicles every year.
The official, however, suggested that people living in Russia's Far East could lose their interest in Japanese cars in the future because the Russian authorities plan to build plants in Vladivostok that will manufacture left hand drive cars, which will be sold at affordable prices.
"And, sooner or later, the more we produce, the fewer Japanese second-hand cars with steering wheel on the right-hand side will be bought by Russians, including residents of Primorye. Furthermore, it is a lottery: you can buy either a sunken car or a car assembled from parts of other cars, and no one will bear any responsibility for it," Ivanov said.
Within the next three years, the Russian government will allocate approximately five billion rubles for the construction of a plant that will manufacture car engines in the Special Economic Zone of Vladivostok, he said.
"In three years' time, the state will invest some five billion rubles within three years in the construction of a new facility to produce car engines in the new zone," he said.
It will be an absolute new production enterprise, he said.
"First, it will help gain access to the most advanced technologies, and, second, these engines will be installed both in Russian cars and will be exported to any country of the world. This production will be oriented towards export to a greater extent than the domestic market," Ivanov said.
