TEHRAN Member of Iran Khodro board of directors Reza Visseh said on Thursday that Iran Khodro Automaking Company will create an additional 200,000 jobs by putting into practice its development projects in the motorcar industry.

Visseh who received the "work and production" certificate of merit from President Mohammad Khatami on Thursday, said that currently about 500,000 workers are working in Iran's car industry while the number of workers in this sector in the year 1993 was less than 30,000.

He said that Iran Khodro produced less than 25,000 cars in the year 1993, adding that the output will rise to 18,000 cars in the current year and over 250,000 next year (1380). The output will reach 500,000 cars in the Iranian year of 1381 (March 2002-March 2003), he said.

Visseh said that Iran Khodro has decided to produce a new model with different utilities every year. Besides "national car", a domestically-designed car, Iran Khodro has decided to produce Peugeot 206 vehicle.

Visseh who is also advisor to the minister of industries and mines said that the value of Iran Khodro output amounted to $1.5 billion, 80 percent of which is "value added" going to the domestic enterprises operating as suppliers of spare parts and auto parts to Iran Khodro.

He said that Iran Khodro has launched research studies in recent years, enabling the company to acquire the expertise in the field of modern designing of motorcar production lines.

He said that Iran Khodro products, Peugeot Persia, "national car" and Peugeot 206 have the high quality standards and are able to compete with foreign cars on international market.

Visseh said that Iran Khodro has become capable of designing and manufacturing the hardware for car production line with its subsidiary company being set to manufacture a complete production line in the next two years.

Asked about the plan to transfer the production line of 1960s model car, Paykan, to Khorasan Province, he said that Iran Khodro has decided to replace its production line with a modern one and preferred to transfer the Paykan production line and other production lines with low output to Khorasan Province to prepare the ground for modernization of its products.

He said that since several domestic suppliers of spare parts are located in Khorasan Province, Iran Khodro has chosen that province for this purpose.

(IRNA)