Hafei, based in Harbin City in the northernmost Heilongjiang Province, received orders for eight H410A helicopters Wednesday, after it obtained a model certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Thursday's China Daily reported.

The new helicopter will play a role in the country's western development strategy, as the vast areas of wilderness and the long distances in the western areas make land transportation difficult,said Bao Peide, CAAC's deputy director.

China now has less than 80 helicopters in operation for generaluse, which means 0.06 helicopters for every 1 million people, far less than the world average of 3.9 helicopters per 1 million people.

Moreover, 97 percent of China's helicopters for general aviation are imported.

The absence of domestically made helicopters in China's general aviation sector is not because China-made aircraft is of low quality, but because China's generation aviation market has been all but disallowed from using helicopters, said Zhang Yanzhong, general manager of the China Aviation Industry Corp II, which formed the Hafei Aviation Industry Co Ltd.

He said China will mainly rely on itself for the development ofits helicopter industry, but the country will also step up cooperation with foreign companies.

Experts said the development of the helicopter industry for the general aviation sector will speed up national economic growth and create more jobs.

The average price for a helicopter is 2.4 million US dollars, and the cost of using helicopters is higher than its initial price.

Experts predict China will need 1,800 helicopters, costing 4.9 billion US dollars, by 2013.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2002)