JAKARTA - Malaysia's third-largest motorcycle company, DNC Asiatic Holdings, plans to open in May an assembly plant in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, a newspaper reported today.

The project will have an initial investment of 8.9 billion rupiah (RM3.8 million), Kompas daily reported.

"To build this assembly industry for motorbikes of the Demak brand we have established a company under the name of Demak Motorindo Utama in Pontianak," DNC Asiatic executive, YB Datuk Wan Junaidi bin Tuanku Jaafar, was quoted as saying.

He said the plant will obtain its parts from China, Taiwan and Japan.

The production site in West Kalimantan is part of the company's expansion plan to Indonesia, South Africa and Nepal, he said.

DNC Asiatic was founded in May 2002 and began production in May 2003. It has since sold 50,000 motorcycles at a price of between 5.3 million and 8.9 million rupiah, Kompas said.

The company will be competing against cheap Chinese motorcycles which began coming into the Indonesian market in late 1990s. - AFP