The Indonesian government was upbeat to boost export of completely built-up cars by 22.5 percent to 38,000 units this year with the construction of a special car departure port nearing completion.

The car port, integrated with Jakarta's Tanjung Priok Port, will be completed this July, leading economic daily Bisnis Indonesia reported Thursday.

Indonesia's car export -- dominated by Japanese manufacturers Suzuki, Toyota and Daihatsu -- soared by 80 percent to 31,000 units in 2006 from 18,000 a year earlier, the Indonesian language daily said.

"We are very serious in building infrastructure and hopefully investors who initially were hesitant about making Indonesia their production base will regain confidence," Budi Dharmadi, director general of transportation industry with the Ministry of Industry, was quoted as saying.

The national automotive industry has installed production capacity of 700,000 units a year, but production remains below that due to sluggish domestic sales.

Domestic car sales plunged 40.3 percent to 318,880 units in 2006 from the record 533,840 units a year earlier, due to fuel price rises and soaring bank interests.