Chinanews, Beijing, Mar. 23 – China’s jumbo plane project will make substantial progress in 2007, as China intends to set up a joint venture company to carry out development and research work for it. The joint venture company will operate by modern enterprise system. Private funds are invited to buy shares of the project and international companies are also welcomed to cooperate with domestic counterparts, the Beijing News reported.

 

The jumbo plane project will involve huge investment and related development and research work will take a very long time (at least ten years). China plans to introduce marked-oriented investors to do market research, business operation, and sales work for the project. If China does not do so, the project might abort again, said Liu Jinggang, vice director of the Aerospace Technology Institute at the China Aerospace Industry Development and Research Center.

 

His point was echoed by Lu Feng, a professor from the School of Government Administration at Peking University. According to Professor Lu, the success of the project is determined by its industrialization degree, not by the successful production of a single airplane. Based on this criterion, the project should be run by enterprises that can do product development, assembling, and sales work.

 

As to how private funds can participate in this project, experts say that the "Guidelines on Non-public Sectors of the Economy Participating in National Defense Science and Industry Construction", a document published before the recent NPC and CPPCC sessions, might very likely be served as the framework on this matter.

 

The guidelines, drafted by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, was publicized on March 1. According to this document, the state encourages non-public sectors of the economy to join in the development and industrialization of high technologies used for both civil and military purposes.