Britain and China has inked business deals amounting to about GBP2.6 billion ($4 billion) last Monday that include increased sales of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles to China. The deals were signed during a visit to Britain by Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang, who is likely to become the next Chinese premier. Billions of dollars of deals were announced during Li's visits to Germany and Spain. A unit of India-based Tata Motors Ltd., JLR has committed to sell 40,000 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, worth more than GBP1 billion, in China in 2011.
JLR has three manufacturing plants in Britain. JLR CEO Ralf Speth said the deal to sell more vehicles in China, the world's largest car market, signals the acceleration of JLR's growth plans and also reflects both the importance of the Chinese market to JLR and its value to the U.K. economy.
In October 2010, Tata Motors said JLR was in talks with a Chinese automaker to establish a manufacturing and sales joint venture in China. Britain's government, which hopes private-sector job creation will bolster economic recovery despite public-sector job cuts, said all the deals would secure 700 jobs in Britain. [via autonews - sub. required]
