GM Uzbekistan denies reports on staff arrests, closure of plant

The press release of the company said that reports in some mass media completely cut off from reality and do not reflect the current situation around GM Uzbekistan.

The company refuted reports on arrest of large number of GM Uzbekistan staff, including current top management and employees of various divisions of the enterprise.

GM Uzbekistan said that the automobile plant in Asaka is working in normal mode and denied reports on suspension of the plant.

The Uzbek-US joint venture admitted that ongoing financial and economic crisis in key export markets, which significantly influenced the automotive market in general, affected the volumes of domestic sales of automotive products.

“However, this does not mean that the activities of the Asaka plant suspended. In contrast, GM Uzbekistan is considering the current situation not only as a challenge but rather as an opportunity to expand its activities and reach new markets,” the press release of GM Uzbekistan said.

GM Uzbekistan also reports about the so-called “scheme” of realization in domestic market domestic of vehicles, which were shipped to export and illegally imported Uzbekistan, as well as so called “sumps” in border regions in neighboring states, used for this purpose.

The release said that other state bodies and establishments of Uzbekistan such as the State Customs Committee, State Tax Committee, Committee on protection of the state border, banks and other organizations along with GM Uzbekistan are accused in use of such scheme without any foundation and evidences.

GM Uzbekistan underlined that such schemes are impossible without participation of similar bodies of neighboring states as all export-import deals and related financial and other operations are registered by customs and banking system both in Uzbekistan and states, importing the Uzbek cars. It added that the published reports of bogus schemes implementation in the domestic car market, declared for export, is not possible in practice and in theory, the release added.