The President of Fiat Group in Latin America, Mr. Cledorvino Belini, together with the President of Fiat Argentina, Mr. Christian Rattazzi, have met with the President of Argentina, Ms. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, where they were joined by the Ministers of Finance, Mr. Martín Lousteau, and Public Investment, Mr. Julio de Vido, and the Secretary of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Fernando Fraguío, to invite them to the relaunch of the Fiat Auto factory in Córdoba.

The two Fiat executives anticipated to the authorities the additional investments of US$300 million targeted at the activities of Fiat Powertrain Technologies and Fiat Auto in the country, in addition to other investments also being made in the local Iveco division. Argentina is Latin America's third largest economy.

Fiat Auto has recently restarted car production at it Córdoba plant which has been mothballed since the Argentinean economic downturn at the beginning of the decade. The Argentinean new car market is now growing at a very strong rate and helping underpin the economic revival, and reopening the factory will also ease pressure on Fiat's factory at Betim in Brazil which is fully running at 3 shift capacity. Of the new US$300 million investment, almost US$200 million will be spent on producing transmissions.

The Córdoba plant is now assembling the Fiat Siena saloon model, and at the end of the year a new 1-ton pick-up developed in conjunction with Tata Motors is set to roll out of the plant, although disagreements on certain issues within this project between the partners is slowing the realisation up. The factory is also building transmission units for PSA Peugeot-Citroën.