GUANGZHOU Automobile Industry Group, a major Chinese partner of Honda Motor, will spend 6.8 billion yuan (US$916 million) to develop cars bearing its own brand, as local players seek to garner a bigger share of the world's fastest-growing auto market.

The State-run firm unveiled the plan Friday to build a research and development center and a plant with a total land area of 1.5 million square meters, in a bid to roll out its first own-brand sedan in 2010, it said in a statement.

A ground-breaking ceremony attended by more than 400 people, including senior local and Central Government officials, was held in the southern city of Panyu on Friday, said Guangzhou Automobile, which also has a partnership with Toyota.

"Through cooperation with Honda and Toyota, Guangzhou Automobile Group has accumulated the rich resources of manufacturing technology and managerial know-how as well as a talent pool," the statement said.

"While continuing to expand the partnership, it is also strategically important for the company to push forward independent research and development and develop its own brands," it said.

After making foreign-brand cars via tie-ups with overseas partners, many of China's domestic manufacturers are setting out on an own-brand strategy, hoping to wean themselves off reliance on foreign technology and make a name globally.

Foreign auto giants have been reaping profits in the world's second-largest market where 5.18 million cars were sold in 2006, up 30 percent from a year earlier.

FAW Group Corp, a China partner of Volkswagen AG and Toyota, plans to spend 13 billion yuan in the next eight years to develop cars under its own brand.

SAIC Motor Corp, which runs ventures with General Motors Corp. and Volkswagen, announced a massive bond issue plan earlier in the year to fund the development of its own-brand cars -- including the construction of facilities able to make 270,000 sedans and 320,000 engines per year -- at an estimated cost of 21.4 billion yuan.

(SD-Agencies)