OREANDA-NEWS The Central African Republic (CAR) would like to start assembling UAZ Patriot SUVs. This is reported by the Izvestia newspaper with reference to the country's ambassador to Russia Leon Dodona-Punagaz.

"Russian cars are very decent, very strong, such cars are needed by the CAR, because we don't have very good roads," the diplomat explained.

According to Dodon-Punagaz, during a recent visit to the republic, BRICS delegations discussed the construction of infrastructure, railways and conventional roads. Also, a number of businessmen who visited the CAR are going to return to the country with a plan to create factories and factories.

The CAR is not the first African country that wanted to build Russian cars. Earlier, Russian Ambassador to Addis Ababa Yevgeny Terekhin said that domestic plants could start production in Ethiopia. At the same time, GAZ Group was going to enter the local market since 2019 — the company wanted to supply products to Ethiopia, Nigeria, the DRC and Ghana.

According to Viktor Suitcase, Chairman of the Russian-Sudanese Business Council, it is difficult to develop business in Africa because of the unstable political situation. So, during the recent unrest in Sudan, many firms had to evacuate their employees. Coming to the African market, players "bear certain risks," and government contracts between ministries and Russian companies can become a financial guarantee for them, Chemondanov explained.