
Company officials and Baldwin County economic leaders are confident the answer will be "Yes."
Chuantao Wang, the chief executive officer of Hybrid Kinetic Motors, said, "It will be an exciting, successful program. I have very, very high confidence."
Wang admits it will take one and half billion dollars from investors to make the project a reality, but he's confident that will happen.
Wang said, "We are still in the fundraising phase. But, within six months, conservatively, we will get one billion dollars."
The CEO said that will happen through the EB-5 Program.
The EB-5 Program is a federal program where non-citizens can get U.S. visas if they invest one million dollars in an American business that creates full time employment for at least ten American workers.
After two years of complying with requirements, those investors would get permanent resident status.
Wang admits that, so far, the program is "not that successful. Why? Because of the lack of a big project, an attractive project. But our project attracts so many people from around the world, especially from China."
Robert Ingram with the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance says he thinks the plant will be built.
Ingram also said the incentive package with the state hasn't been negotiated yet, but that it will be similar to the packages that lured other car manufacturers to Alabama.
Ingram said, "People have the impression that you just write a check, but, in reality, in all these projects, the incentives are based on the company reaching certain milestones. And that's the way it'll be here."
HK officials said they hope to have the first vehicle off the assembly line perhaps as soon as 2012.
Binge Drinking A Problem In Baldwin County










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