SYKTYVKAR, December 27 (RIA Novosti) - Sweden's IKEA is to build a 100 million euro ($145 million) furniture factory in the Komi Territory in northwest Russia, the regional industry and energy minister said on Thursday.

Nikolai Gerasimov said the factory, which will be the largest in Russia's northwest and the company's third factory in Russia, will be built by Swedwood, a structural unit of IKEA, in two stages.

In the first stage, the company will open a wood-sawing facility, which will require 500 cubic meters of timber per year. Swedwood intends to purchase half from local entrepreneurs and grow and produce the rest itself locally, Gerasimov said.

In the second stage, Swedwood will organize the production of furniture from 200 cubic meters of saw log and sell the remaining timber in the Komi Territory and other regions of Russia.