Toshiba Corp. will introduce a line of low-cost television models in December in an effort to double sales to ¥40 billion in Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia and Vietnam, the head of the TV unit said.

The company, whose products range from nuclear power plants to semiconductors to home appliances, targets sales of 1.2 million TVs in the region in the 12 months starting next April, rising from about half a million sets this fiscal year, Masaaki Oosumi, president of Toshiba's Visual Products Company, said at a briefing at its Tokyo headquarters Monday.

Toshiba is counting on sales of lower-priced, flat-panel TVs in Asia next year to help offset an anticipated plunge in domestic demand after the expiration of government subsidies designed to boost consumer spending, Oosumi said. Production of the new models started in November at a plant in Jakarta and sales in Southeast Asia begin in December, with 24-inch models priced at $190.

"The entire industry, not just Toshiba, is betting on developing markets," Oosumi said.

Egyptian venture JIJI Toshiba Corp. will produce flat-panel television sets in Egypt with a local maker, company officials said Monday.

Toshiba and Egyptian appliance maker El Araby Co. will build a plant with an output capacity of about 1 million units, aiming to start operations around next March.

The major electronics maker is likely to invest several billion yen in the project.

The Egyptian plant will help Toshiba tap into emerging Middle Eastern and African markets where demand for replacing cathode-ray tube TVs is expected to surge, the officials said.

The plant will mainly produce 24- and 32-inch TVs but will also make models with screen sizes of 40 inches and larger. In a further move to strengthen its competitiveness in emerging markets, Toshiba is considering establishing production bases in India, Russia and South American countries.