Slovakia to seal JLR deal by year's-end: minister

Indian-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will ink an agreement with Slovakia by year end to build a car manufacturing plant there, Slovakia's economy minister said today.
"By the end of this year an agreement will be signed, which creates a formal base for Land Rover to come to Slovakia," Economy Minister Vazil Hudak told reporters in Bratislava.
"Discussions are ongoing, we now have the first draft of the investment agreement which should be concluded between the Slovak government and Jaguar Land Rover."
Yesterday, Hudak had another round of negotiations with Alexander Wortberg, chief operating officer for the JLR factory planned by its owner Tata Motors, India's largest car maker.

"We reviewed the process of talks and both of us expressed satisfaction with the progress of negotiations," Hudak said.
Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said earlier that "we'll be able to announce the date of the signature later this month."

In August, Jaguar Land Rover signed a memorandum of understanding with the Slovak government to build the plant in the western city of Nitra but has so far refused to divulge the details of its planned investment.
Unconfirmed local media reports suggest the plant will employ 6,000 workers and produce 300,000 vehicles annually for the European market.
Tata Motors is hugely reliant on revenues from JLR, which it bought for USD 2.3 billion (2.1 billion euros) from Ford in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis.