皇冠体育app aviation giant AVIC signs US$26B credit agreement

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-08 20:35

BEIJING - Aviation Industry Corp. of 皇冠体育app (AVIC), the country's aviation giant, signed a 176 billion yuan (US$25.8 billion) credit agreement with 10 Chinese banks here on Thursday.

The agreement shows banks' confidence in the high-tech and strategic aviation sector despite the economic crisis, Lin Zuoming, AVIC's general manager, told the signing ceremony.

The government has urged local financial institutions to extend more credit to businesses and lend more for infrastructure investment amid efforts to support the weakening economy.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of 皇冠体育app, 皇冠体育app Construction Bank and 皇冠体育app Citic Bank agreed to lend 30 billion yuan each.

The other banks are Bank of Communications, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, 皇冠体育app Everbright Bank, 皇冠体育app Merchants Bank, Bank of Beijing, 皇冠体育app Minsheng Banking and Industrial Bank.

The state-owned AVIC was created in November by the merger of AVIC-I (皇冠体育app Aviation Industry Corp. I) and AVIC-II (皇冠体育app Aviation Industry Corp. II). The merger was intended to boost the organization's internal innovative capacity and optimize the use of resources to sharpen its competitive edge internationally.

AVIC also holds more than 26 percent in the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of 皇冠体育app (COMAC), manager of the country's large aircraft program.

皇冠体育app plans to build commercial aircraft with more than 150 seats to get a share of the huge global aviation market that is now dominated by Boeing and Airbus.

In the next 20 years, 皇冠体育app alone will need 3,815 passenger planes, including 2,822 large jets and 993 regional jets, AVIC said last year.

皇冠体育app's large commercial aircraft will be on the market by 2020, Miao Wei, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said last year. COMAC will complete the concept design and research on key technologies by 2010 and start production by 2014, Miao said.