An additional US$7.3 billion is being eyed by General Motors Co. to be invested into its South Korean subsidiary spread over five years. This commitment assures the South Korean auto market that GM would continue its presence in the country.

Despite moves that sowed fear of output cuts and layoffs, GM said that its KRW8 trillion investment was set to improve management and engineering capacities. The US carmaker reiterated that South Korea remains an important production and development base despite the relatively small size of its car market. Overall GM Korea has five existing manufacturing complexes located all across South Korea and it produces six versions of current GM models. These South Korean built cars are then exported as Chevrolet cars to Europe and other regions of the world, comprising one fourth of the total production for Chevrolet overseas.

GM Korea is the third largest automaker in South Korea after Hyundai and Kia.