CARACAS, May 17 -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that Chinese bus maker Yutong will open a plant in the South American country in October.

"This will be the most modern bus manufacturing plant in Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuela will produce its own buses and we are going to export them," Maduro said in Miranda state on Saturday.

Land Transportation Minister Haiman El Troudi said the factory will be built in the western state of Yaracuy and will have an assembly capacity of 3,500 buses a year.

The Yutong plant is part of Venezuela's national transportation policy.

At least 90 Venezuelan cities have adopted the BusCaucagua surface transportation system, which is operated with Yutong buses, Maduro told a launch ceremony of the system in Miranda state.

So far there are 235 routes with 2,414 Yutong buses that benefit 2 million people every day, he said.