JAKARTA, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's largest bank in term of asset, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), planned to issue bonds at a total amount of 20 trillion rupiah (about 1.3 billion U.S. dollars) in a bid to support its business expansion plans in the next three years, an executive of state bank BRI said here on Thursday.

"The bond issuance would be conducted gradually, to commence in the first semester this year until 2021," BRI Financial Director Haru Koesmahargyo said on the sidelines of the bank's shareholders meeting here.

The bonds would be issued in three phases with two of them equally amounting eight trillion rupiah (about 555.2 million U.S. dollars), followed by the last one amounting four trillion rupiah (about 277.5 million U.S. dollars).

Proceeds from the bond issuance would be used to finance its plans to acquire a general insurance firm, he added.