国际英语新闻：Volvo CEO upbeat about joint venture with China

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Stefan Jacoby, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Cars, said he was positive about the future of a joint venture his company runs in cooperation with China's private automaker Geely.

"We are looking for joint cooperations with our sister company Geely.We will have access to the supply base Geely has in China which offers opportunities and we are also looking into opportunities to jointly further develop electrifications of all vehicles," Jacoby said as the keynote speaker unveiling the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles Convention Center Wednesday.

"I see no reasons to be concerned in that area in respect with Volvo and Geely," he said.

Geely, a Chinese automaker run by Li Shufu, an aggressive entrepreneur, bought Volvo from Ford earlier this year at 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. Volvo is in the process of setting up a Chinese headquarters that mirrors its home office in Goteborg, Sweden, Jacoby said.

Published reports suggest the brand plans to build as many as 300,000 vehicles a year in China. Volvo expects to sell about 380,000 vehicles in the entire world this year.

"I can imaging we can sell 800,000 cars per year in 2020," he added.

Volvo entered China in 1984 ,according to Jacoby. Volvo has an assembly factory in China, but the production is limited.

In 2010, the sales are up almost 50 percent that than in 2009, Jacoby told the Motor Press Guild on the sidelines of the biggest annual auto show on the western coast.