Ground-breaking ceremony for BMW Group Parts Distribution Centre in Malaysia

On December 10, the BMW Group held the ground-breaking ceremony of its
new Parts Distribution Centre in Malaysia for the Asia-Pacific-Oceania
region. The BMW Group is thus rounding off its involvement in Malaysia
and creating an important structural framework for its envisaged growth
in Asia. The company is planning to double the sales volume in its
Asian markets by 2008, from 78,500 automobiles in 2002 to around
150,000. Total investment for the new Parts Distribution Centre
amounts to more than 8 million euros. The Centre will be based in Port
of Tanjung Pelepas near the southern city of Johor Bahru, and the start
of operations is scheduled for August 2004. Until then, parts will
continue to be supplied by the Parts Distribution Centre in Singapore.
The BMW Group had already set up a new IT centre in Malaysia in June
2003 as a regional hub for all the company's IT networks in the
Asia-Pacific-Oceania region. In addition, the sales joint venture in
Kuala Lumpur with the Group's local partner Sime Darby Berhad, BMW
Malaysia Sdn Bhd, commenced business activities on 1 August 2003. In
the first eleven months of the current year, the BMW Group sold over
2,000 BMW and MINI brand automobiles in Malaysia. The company's total
sales volume in Asia reached almost 80,000 automobiles up to the end of
November. This is an increase of more than 13% compared with the same
period last year.