Hoping to cash in on the booming Russian market, Japanese carmaker Nissan has begun building a multi-million dollar car plant at St Petersburg in Russia. Nissan, Japan''s second-largest carmaker will assemble X-Trail 4x4 cars and Teana saloons at the site for sale exclusively in Russia.

When ready in 2009, the $200-million plant will produce 50,000 cars a year and create 750 jobs.

Building of the plant comes almost a month after Nissan said its bosses would not be paid bonuses this year after the group suffered an 11 per cent drop in profits, the first decline in seven years.

In recent years a number of carmakers, notably Toyota, Renault and Kia Motors have entered Russia''s fast growing market, fuelled by its booming economy.

Nissan executive vice president Carlos Tavares said at a ceremony to mark the start of work on the site "Geographic expansion is very important to us. This is a significant step for Nissan in Russia "

According to global accountancy firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers has predicted that the Russian car market would be worth $96 billion in sales by 2011.