“This year we are planning to open our own dealer network in those Asian countries, with the attraction of regional partners,” Fomenko said.

In his words, the current economic crisis least of all touched Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, so AutoKrAZ counts on supplying to those countries a big batch of its vehicles in 2009.

In 2008, AutoKrAZ reduced output by 13% or 572 to 3,634 automobiles, Ukrinform reported.

AutoKrAZ specializes in the production of 28 base models of dump lorries, high-sided trucks, timber carriers, artics, off-roaders for the army, as well as installations for servicing the extraction of oil and gas, and over 400 motor road equipment sets.