Seventeen years after Bulgaria's last failed attempt to revive its automobile industry, the country has pinned new hopes on the launch of mass production of cars under the Chinese Great Wall badge, due on Tuesday.

The first car assembled here was rolled out in the middle of November last year at a factory near the town of Lovech, Northern Bulgaria. Mass production however will be launched with the official opening of the plant on February 21.

With the opening of its new plant in Bulgaria, Great Wall Motors becomes the first Chinese automaker to assemble cars in the European Union.

Cars produced by China's Great Wall already hit the Bulgarian market in October last year through a network of twelve representative show rooms across the country.