Air China, China's biggest air carrier, plans to get listed on the Chinese mainland later this year, a company official said on Wednesday.

Zheng Bao'an, secretary of the board of the company, told reporters Air China has submitted its application for listing to the China Securities Regulatory Commission for approval.

The company hopes to raise 8 billion yuan (US$1 billion) from the domestic listing with its planned issue of 2.7 billion Chinese currency-denominated shares, said Zheng.

"There is no timetable for the company to be listed on the mainland as we are still waiting for the approval from the commission," he said.

Air China would be the second major State-owned firm to go public on the mainland after the Bank of China, the second biggest of its kind in China, was given green light for listing on the mainland earlier this month after the country suspended initial public offering for about one year. Other heavyweight Chinese firms, such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest commercial bank, and China Mobile, are also reportedly to issue shares on the mainland.

The planned listing of those giant firms is part of the government's capital market development strategy to stabilize and boost the attractiveness of the domestic stock market, the Shanghai Securities News reported earlier this week.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2006)