T

wo investors may become pioneers in the domestic photocopy machine industry, which is currently relying heavily on imports, as the two firms plan to build two separate factories costing about US$45 million in total investment.

The two - Malaysian Dataproducts and a joint venture between domestic investor PT Dokusis Solusi Indonesia and Taiwanese Teco Group - may spend $20 million and $25 million, respectively.

"Yes, they have *outlined* their plans," the Industry Ministry's director for telecommunications and informatics industries Ramon Bangun said Tuesday.

"I've also promised them that *the government* will gradually stop imports of used photocopy machines once they realize their plans."

Indonesia imports both copier machines and multipurpose photo copy machines from Singapore, where South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, the US and Australia market their products, as no local producers exist yet, according to Ramon.

The Indonesian copier market is worth "almost Rp 2 trillion *$210 million*" annually.

A director of PT DP Dataproducts Indonesia, Agus Purwandi, confirmed the plan, saying the $20 million budget would be spent in three years, starting next year.

He said for the first phase, the company would build up a distribution network in the country's big cities, including North Sumatra's Medan, Jakarta, West Java's Bandung and East Java's Surabaya.

Dataproducts currently relies on imports.

With the presence of the planned factory, he said, the company was aiming at 10 percent of the country's photocopy machine and printer markets, which currently are dominated by Japan's Canon and the United States' Xerox with a combined 30 percent market share.

But the firm would need to meet a sales target of Rp 3 billion next year before building the factory, he said.

"If that target is achieved, the company will build an assembly plant in Indonesia in the next year," he said.

Agus said Dataproducts also planned to make Indonesia their production hub for the Southeast Asian market - in particular Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.