After months of uncertainty about whether a bribery scandal in Korea would affect Kia`s plans, West Point on Friday let out a sigh of relief and at last celebrated Kia`s $1.2 billion investment here.

Louie Favorite/AJC (ENLARGE)

Mike Dobbs (left), Troup County manager, and Nick Woodson, LaGrange mayor pro tem, look over a display before the event.

Louie Favorite/AJC (ENLARGE)

Numerous political and business dignitaries manned shovels Friday for the groundbreaking of the new Kia plant in West Point.

Gov. Sonny Perdue and Hyundai Chairman Chung Mong-koo, the automotive tycoon who was jailed amid the Korean bribery case earlier this year, hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking at the factory`s future home, now a strip of cleared red dirt off I-85. Hyundai is the parent company of Kia Motors Corp.

The two VIPs exchanged commemorative plaques and shoveled ceremonial sand under a tent full of Korean executives and state and local officials at the West Point site. Perdue called Kia "the largest, single economic development announcement in the history of our state. It is a big deal."

But West Point, the tiny town on the Alabama line, may have the most to gain from Kia`s plant, which will bring 2,500 direct and 2,000 supplier jobs when it opens in 2009.

Kia will remake the economy in west Georgia, which for years relied on textiles but now will perform high-tech work for the 21st century, Perdue said.

West Point has seen many local textile plants idled and thousands of reliable jobs shipped overseas, said Drew Ferguson, president of a local bank and chairman of the town`s development authority. But Kia has given the town some new hope, he said.

"Now we`re moving into a new manufacturing era in this region," Ferguson said. "Our community has suffered a long time."

Ferguson was instrumental in getting some 30 landowners to sell their property to the state for the Kia site. Many of those property owners were at Friday`s ceremony.

One former owner, Eddie Striblin, said he decided to sell his family`s home of 18 years because of the plant`s importance to the community

"It`s bittersweet in a way. We left a lot of memories," Striblin said. "I wanted my grandchildren to live here, but hopefully there will be jobs for them, which is more important."

Donald Gilliam, the vice mayor of West Point, said Kia will restore West Point as a thriving community.

So many young people left town because they couldn`t find a job, he said. "Now we can provide jobs for our children, and they can come back now."

Kia President Chung Eui-sun said after the ceremony that Friday was a great day for his company.

"This is our first plant in the U.S., and with Hyundai together we`re increasing market share" in North America, he said.

Hyundai has a new car and SUV plant in Montgomery. The younger Chung would not say which models Kia`s West Point plant will build. That is still being determined, he said.

The 68-year-old elder Chung was frail and moved slowly as he took the podium and addressed the crowd Friday. He entered the tent leading a Georgia state trooper and a cadre of Korean subordinates in dark suits.

Today`s ceremony had been in doubt for months after the Korean scandal engulfed both Chungs and other executives at Kia and Hyundai.

The event had been scheduled for April and reset for May, but both dates had to be scrapped as Chairman Chung spent time in jail and then a Korean hospital.

Georgia officials said the event should assure critics that Kia will be open by 2009.

"I hope this sends the message to those that thought otherwise that Kia is on the ground in Georgia, and the investment is real," Craig Lesser, commissioner of Georgia`s Department of Economic Development, said Thursday.

To win the plant, Georgia promised Kia about $400 million in incentives  including half the cost of Friday`s ceremony. Officials weren`t sure yet how much the ceremony would cost the state.

Despite the large package of incentives, Georgia is having to fight to win all the benefits Kia will bring.

Alabama is just blocks from West Point`s downtown, and state officials there are wooing suppliers to locate in their state and to employ their residents.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley announced late Thursday that Alabama had landed a third Kia supplier, which is locating in Opelika, Ala., and will create 170 jobs.

"We`ve made no secret of the fact that we were going to compete hard for Kia suppliers," Riley said. "We have been and we will continue to."

Riley also announced Thursday that he is sending a delegation back to South Korea in mid-November to follow up with potential Kia suppliers. Riley led a delegation to South Korea in July.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.