Investment By Chang’an Expected To Bring 100 Engineering Jobs, Bring Company Closer To Ford
Chang'an Motors unveiled its new logo earlier this month
The difficult, but slowly improving, situation for Detroit’s auto industry looks to get a little better, with the announcement that the Chinese automaker Chang’an — which has joint ventures with Ford, Mazda, Peugeot and Suzuki — plans to open a research and development (R&D) center near Detroit early next year. The deal was announced this week by Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, who courted Chang’an on a trade mission in 2009.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Ficano said that the investment by Chang’an will bring 100 engineering jobs and put the company closer to Ford, one of its JV partners in China. Ficano is currently on his sixth trade mission to China with a 26-person delegation, which he says is focused on bringing jobs back to Detroit and Michigan.
As Robert Ficano told BusinessWeek, Michigan has to leverage assets like its skilled work force to lure foreign investment and jobs to the state.
