Construction work will start on Thursday on a series of bus production projects at Guannan auto industry park in Xiamen, a special economic zone in East China's Fujian Province.

A new production facility of Xiamen King Long United Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. will begin operating on the same day, a company official has revealed.

In the industry park the King Long company will produce large and medium-sized buses and light buses, multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), vehicles for protocol activities and vehicle chassis.

The large and medium-sized bus project will cover a total area of 350,000 square meters and take an estimated total investment of 790 million yuan (97 million U.S. dollars), with an annual production capacity of 13,000 units.

This large bus production base will realize 6 billion yuan (740 million U.S. dollars) in output value every year, the company official noted.

The light bus project will be able to produce 60,000 vehicles a year, most of which will be MPVs, with an annual output value of 7 billion yuan (863 million U.S.dollars).

The King Long company will also establish a Sino-foreign joint-venture project to annually refit 1,000 limousines and special vehicles, with an annual output value of approximately 100 million yuan (12 million U.S. dollars). But the company official declined to reveal the name of the company's foreign partner.

The chassis project will take an estimated investment of 400 million yuan (49 million U.S. dollars), the official added.