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General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) will be joining up with a former Soviet territory to produce and sell Chevy-branded vehicles. GM and Uzavtosanoat (located in Uzbekistan) have signed a partnership agreement for a joint venture that will target consumers in that middle-Asian country. Initially, the joint venture is projected to produce about 250,000 cars annually.

GM continues to invest in emerging markets worldwide to offset sale problems here in its domestic market, and this should be a good move for the auto giant. The ex-Soviet republic had a falling out with the U.S. over a 2005 citizen uprising (and human rights violations en masse) in Andijan, but has warmed back to American business with this rather large partnership.

The GM/Uzbekistan joint partnership will take advantage of a plant that exists in the town of Asaka where Uzavtosanoat already has a factory that recently operated as part of a joint venture with the failed South Korean automaker Daewoo. Ironically, that plant already assembles cars from shipped-in assembly kits supplied by -- GM . well, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Company, anyway. GM Daewoo is the South Korean unit of the auto giant which happened as a result of GM's buying Daewoo's assets over five years ago.

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