Of the 863 operating civil planes in China by November 2005, 534 are from Boeing Company of the United States, a senior Chinese civil aviation executive said here Tuesday.

"Calculated according to the catalogue price, China has spent nearly 40 billion U.S. dollars on purchasing planes from the United States," said Li Jiaxiang, president of the China National Aviation Holding Company, at the China-US Business Forum opened here Tuesday.¡¡

He said that growth in China's civil aviation industry has contributed tremendously to development of Sino-US economic and trade relations.

"The greatest beneficiary is the US plane manufacturing business," said Li.¡¡

"China purchases a large number of plane engines, aero-electric equipment, accessories and advanced navigating devices each year and enjoys maintenance service provided by U.S. companies," said Li.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of employees of China's airplane companies have received various forms of professional training in the U.S., which have brought more profits to the U.S. aviation field, Li said.

"The growth of China's civil aviation has provided hundreds of thousands job opportunities to the U.S. aviation industry, which proves that the two nations have win-win economic and trade relations," said Li.

China's airline companies ordered 60 B787 aircraft and 70 B737 aircraft in 2005 alone, with a total price of more than 11 billion U.S. dollars, ranking 2005 China's largest plane purchasing year.

China has entered the development of transportation in the 11th Five-Year Development Program (2006-2010) and will need over 2,600 new planes in the coming 20 years, valued at a price of more than 213 billion U.S dollars, according to the latest analysis by the Boeing Company.¡¡

China will purchase more than 100 airliners each year from 2006 to 2010, Gao Hongfeng, deputy director general of China's General Administration of Civil Aviation told a press conference here on Tuesday. Enditem 
 

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