BEIJING: China has approved a joint venture that will see Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) make and sell luxury cars in the country in partnership with domestic company Chery Automobile, official media said last week.

State planner the National Development and Reform Commission approved the joint venture seven months after it was announced by the car manufacturers, Xinhua news agency said. The $1.89 billion venture was approved in half the time the process commonly takes in China because “Chery was familiar with the approval procedure and did not waste time,” a company spokesman told the news agency.

The joint venture will set up a research and development facility and a manufacturing plant in the eastern city of Changshu in Jiangsu province. It is scheduled to operate in 2014 and will produce 130,000 vehicles a year, mainly Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles, but also some co-branded cars, Xinhua said.

Sales of JLR cars reached 53,000 in China in the first nine months of the year, up 80 percent from a year earlier, according to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers quoted by the news agency. JLR’s owner, India’s Tata Motors, has revealed plans to double its investment in its subsidiary.    

Chery, which makes passenger cars, utility vehicles and engines, is one of China’s largest carmakers and exports to over 60 countries.