SEOUL -- Kia Motors Corp. will build its first U.S. assembly plant in West Point, Ga.

The factory is expected to produce 300,000 vehicles per year at maximum capacity, Kia said here on Monday.

Production is scheduled to begin in 2009. The plant will employ about 2,500 workers. Kia expects five or six suppliers to set up operations nearby, resulting in the creation of an additional 2,000 local jobs.

West Point is near the Georgia-Alabama border, southwest of Atlanta, off Interstate 85.

The plant will be the second U.S. plant to be opened by a Korean automaker. Hyundai Motor Co., which owns Kia, started production at its $1.1 billion Montgomery, Ala., plant in 2005.

"Kia Motors has entered an aggressive growth phase in the U.S., and the decision to build a manufacturing facility in West Point, Troup County, Georgia is the latest example of the company's commitment to the marketplace," said Kia CEO Chung Euisun.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue attended the press conference here.

Kia did not say which vehicles it plans to assemble in Georgia.

Kim Hak-ju, an auto analyst at Samsung Securities in Seoul, said: "Kia will be able to fully utilize its facilities as it will roll out a lot of new SUVs, minivans and sedans in 2008-2009.In the past, Hyundai and Kia have not been big enough to localize their cars and this has limited their sales volumes, but now U.S. consumers will see localized models."

Meanwhile, construction is under way on an $87 million U.S. corporate campus for Kia in Irvine, Calif., that is expected to open in December 2006. It will include a design center.

Kia has invested more than $300 million in the United States over the past four years, including an r&d center in Ann Arbor, Mich.; a vehicle proving ground in Mojave, Calif.; and a design studio in California, which it shares with Hyundai Motor America.

In the United States, Kia sold 275,851 vehicles in 2005.

Kia expects its North American sales (U.S. and Canada) to climb by 15 percent to 350,000 units in 2006, and grow to 800,000 units by 2010.