SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-largest automaker, announced Sunday it will set up an auto factory in West Point, Georgia, in the United States that will begin production in 2009 and employ 2,500 workers.

Kia, in a press release, said the $1.2 billion facility will be its first manufacturing plant in the United States. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and President and CEO Euisun Chung made the formal announcement at a ceremony in Seoul, Kia said.

Locations in Mississippi and Tennessee had also contended for the plant.

The facility is expected to produce 300,000 vehicles per year at maximum capacity, Kia said. Kia also said that five to six auto suppliers are expected to set up nearby, resulting in the creation of an additional 2,000 jobs.

The company, maker of the Optima midsize sedan, the small-size Picanto and Sorento SUV, is an affiliate of South Korea’s largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor Co., which has a factory in Montgomery, Alabama.

Kia, which last year exported three-fourths of its South Korean production, is pursuing an aggressive overseas expansion. Besides moving into the United States, it’s building a second plant in China and expects its first European factory to start up in Slovakia at the end of the year and.

The company also supplies materials to partners for vehicle assembly in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia and Iran. Kia sold 1.27 million vehicles in 2005, 13.9 percent more than the year before.