January 13 (SeeNews) - Magna International Inc. told SeeNews on Friday it will invest in a new paint facility in Slovenia to help support new programmes going into its contract vehicle assembly facility in the Austrian city of Graz.
Construction of the new facility is scheduled to begin in the second quarter and the company expects to create approximately 400 jobs, the company's spokesperson, Rej Husetovic, said in response to a SeeNews inquiry.
"Magna has been awarded multiple new programs and an extension of the Mercedes Benz G-Class. The new Slovenia paint facility will operate in conjunction with the Graz plant to help support the new programs," Husetovic explained.
In November, Slovenia's government adopted draft legislation to speed up the implementation of 'a strategic investment' by an unnamed investor in the Hoce–Slivnica municipality, in the country's northeast.
"The act provides the conditions for the implementation of a strategic investment in the Hoce–Slivnica municipality development area, [...] identifies the strategic investment to be implemented in this area, specifies the process for determining the suitability of the strategic investment and regulates certain aspects of spatial planning in the development area as well as the acquisition of property," the government said in a statement.
Local media speculated at the time that the act was adopted to pave the way for the arrival of Magna, which it said will open a factory in the vicinity of Maribor.
Magna International, based in Canada, runs some 309 manufacturing operations and 99 product development, engineering and sales centres in 29 countries.
In Serbia it operates Magna Seating, which makes seating systems for Renault, Ford and Smart.