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ingapore-based property developer Ascendas Group will help develop a complex that will house office and apartment buildings, shops and other facilities inside the huge Metland Cyber City under development in Tangerang.

Making its entry into Indonesia, Ascendas signed a contract Wednesday to form a joint venture with PT Metropolitan Karyadeka Development (MKD) to build the S$300 million (US$225 million) mixed-use project.

'€œThe joint venture marks our first step in Indonesia, which is experiencing robust economic growth and rapid urbanization,'€ Ascendas president and CEO Manohar Khiatani told reporters at the signing in Jakarta.

Indonesia'€™s burgeoning middle-income bracket would soon require more modern and comfortable living, he added.

MKD is a joint venture involving Indonesian property group PT Metropolitan Land (Metland) and Karyadeka Group.

The project with Ascendas covers 9.7 hectares of the 60-hectare plot of land Metland has designated for its cyber city, located about 11 kilometers from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and scheduled for launch in the third quarter of 2015. The entire project is expected to be completed in ten years.

It was agreed at Wednesday'€™s signing that initial capital would be used to construct the first phase, over an area of 1.3 hectares, starting in 2016.

The final investment figure has yet to be calculated.

Ascendas, which currently operates in 10 countries, is a wholly owned subsidiary of JTC, the Singapore government agency responsible for the development of industrial infrastructure. /foy