GM President inaugurates expanded GM regional office

In November GM passed the major 100,000 vehicle sales milestone in the region and they expect to close out the year with total sales of around 110,000 vehicles. This will be an increase of almost 30% over the total sales in 2004 - itself a record performance.

"The region has witnessed tremendous growth since GM first set up its offices in the Dubai World Trade Centre and nowhere is this more evident than here in Dubai," commented Terry Johnsson, Managing Director, General Motors Middle East.

"GM has shared in the region's growth, particularly in the last 2-3 years when our sales have almost doubled. In fact, November was our 25th consecutive month of record sales."

It is only seven years ago that 25 GM employees occupied half a floor of the Dubai World Trade Centre. Today the world's biggest auto manufacturer occupies 3 floors of the Trade Centre and employs 110 people of 29 different nationalities, the largest regional presence of any manufacturer.

"Since the establishment of our first dealership in Egypt in the 1920s, followed by our expansion to the Gulf in the 1940s, the Middle East region - and Dubai in particular - has always been important to General Motors," said Ms Kempston Darkes at the inauguration ceremony.

GM has run its Middle East operations out of Dubai since 1991 and last year, as a result of the tremendous growth in the Middle East business, the regional office for Africa and the Middle East relocated to Dubai from its previous base in Cairo.

"The expansion of our Middle East headquarters reflects the growth in our business and is a sign of our long term commitment to the region," added Kempston-Darkes. "We are fully committed to the communities in which we operate and that includes the development of the local workforce where we are making tremendous progress with the introduction of the GM University in the region."