Spanish telecommunications manufacturer Amper SA, which has installed a telephone factory in the Soviet Union, is looking for products there that could be sold in the West to compensate exported products and repatriate profits and investments. According to the terms of an agreement signed with the Soviet authorities, Amper needs to generate export of Soviet products to countries in the West so that it can obtain a convertible foreign exchange as payment for its products, technology and capital investment. At present executives in the company are studying which products could be included in the operation and a suitable way in which to proceed. One possibility is that the Spanish company will create its own export-import company with the Soviet Union or that it will join up with one of the trade companies specialising in this kind of business. Meanwhile Telettra Espanola SA, which also had contracts with the Soviet authorities to install a rural phone systems factory there has kept out of any such project, limiting itself to supplying technology, after the serious difficulties that it had when it tried to repatriate profit and investment. Amper’s success or failure in thysDarea, however, will not become clear until next financial year. For the Soviet subsidiary, Telur, will start full operation in 1990 meaning that next year production should reach 650,000 systems per year leading also to a rise in components made in and exported from Spain. The factory will also start to make a profit next year. According to company estimates for this year, Telur will make 150,000 Tarsis model phones. At the moment, company sources claim that the plant produces about 9,000 phones every month, a number which will gradually be increased. Telur’s capital comes from Amper 43%, Telefonica de Espana SA’s Telefonica International unit, 5%, and the Soviet State 51%.
