General Motors has its hands in all corners of the globe, and while most consumers know about their operations in Europe and South Koreas, their arm in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan is shaping up to be quite the powerhouse in the all-important Russian market.

Despite only being in existence since November, 2008 GM Uzbekistan’s operations are credited with a 40 percent rise in sales in the first half of 2010. With 45,217 Uzebkistani-made vehicles sold, GM ranked 10th overall in the Russia market. While GM produces mostly modern Daewood-engineered vehicles in Uzbekistan, consumers can also buy the Chevrolet Nexia (pictured above) based on the wretched Pontiac LeMans which originally debuted in 1986.

Due to the overall turmoil at General Motors these days a lot of  projects have been put on hold. Included in that list is the replacement for the current Aveo. A new Aveo, code named the T300, was due out in April of 2010, but now that product has been delayed until January of 2011.

The Aveo is built by GM Daewoo Auto and Technology, the Korean arm of General Motors, which was formed when GM bought the Daewoo automaker back in 2002.

GM Daewoo has already used up $2 billion in credit lines and is looking to secure a loan from the state-owned Korea Development Bank. It has suffered considerably during the worldwide recession with sales down 44.5 percent. That might not seem like much from a little-known and little-though-of offshoot of General Motors, but GM Daewoo accounts for 25 percent of GM’s total production.

The Aveo-replacement’s delay is particularly odd when you’d expect that GM, under the strict observance of the Obama Administration, would be focused on bringing small, fuel-efficient cars to market. (That certainly seems to be the case so far). And with the Aveo already long-in-the-tooth, sales of the model should continue to decline annually – making the need for a new Aveo all that more important.

According to a Reuters report, Japanese and Korean automakers (Hyundai and Kia in particular) are expected to gain market share from GM Daewoo in the small-car segment .

[Source: Reuters]