Promising Newcomers

At the entrance gate to SAIC General Motors Wuling's (SGMW) factory site was a sign with a winged diamond logo resembling the letter W and several banners. Hundreds of structural columns stood erect on the piece of land measuring more than fifty football fields. Tens of heavy equipment drove back and forth.

The scene observed by Tempo visiting the Greenland International Industrial Center in Central Cikarang, West Java, last July, had drastically changed two months later. By mid-September, the bare columns were already covered with walls and a brick-red steel roof. Wuling's car factory was certainly taking shape. The Chinese automobile producer will compete in the automotive market beginning next year.