China's emergence over the past decade as one of the world's
production centers and home to an increasing number of global
brands such as Lenovo and Haiehas led to explosive growth in the
number of international business commuters and made China a key
market for air carriers, Gregor Wende, chief representative for
China of Germany's Lufthansa Group told Beijing Today.
"China provides Lufthansa a promising local aviation market,
which impels us to get involved and share in the booming profits,"
Wende said
He added that after China Aviation Association Corp?was
regrouped into three groups, Lufthansa found cooperation with
domestic aviation counterparts was more productive then
competition. That philosophy has become Lufthansa's main
localization development strategy in Beijing and across Cina.
"Lufthansa Group is expanding its position within China's
aviation market. The successful collaboration of Air China and
Lufthansa in China's largest aircraft-maintenance operation, Ameco
Beijing, will continue another 25 years," Wende said. "With the
continuation of the joint venture, Lufthansa is both strategically
and operationally well positioned in the Chinese market for the
long term
?
"Our collaborations with our Chinese partners have developed very
well. In recent years, Lufthansa has acquired a market competence
in China that will continue to pay off in the future. Mutual
reliability, high professionalism and utmost fairness are the basis
of the joint venture and the hallmarks of this successful
Sino-German cooperation."
Air China would hold on to its 60 percent stake in Ameco Beijing
and Lufthansa would continue to own the rest, he said. The company
was slated to receive total capital infusion of US$100 million
during the next four years to expand Ameco Beijing's maintenance
services to meet the needs of the growing fleets of Air China and
other domestic and international customers, Wende added.
(Beijing Today February 13, 2005)