Fiat to export cars to neighbour countries by year-end

Fiat India on Thursday said it will start exporting cars to neighbouring markets -- Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal -- by the end of 2010.

The company, which has already started exporting its models Linea, Punto and Palio to South Africa, will look to enter the Bangladesh market by next year, an official of Fiat India Automobiles Ltd said on the sidelines of the SIAM summit in New Delhi.

'We see opportunities in the neighbouring markets for our products, specially Sri Lanka, where the government has thrashed the import duty on new cars,' the official said.

Recently, the Sri Lanka government had brought down the import duty to 117 per cent from over 200 per cent earlier, the official said.

Fiat has a joint venture with Tata Motors through which they share production facility at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra and distribution network as well.