AIRBUS hopes to join in China's large plane project, the chief executive officer of the world's leading aircraft manufacturer, Thomas Enders, said yesterday.

Enders confirmed the interest in the project in Tianjin yesterday ahead of today's opening of the Summer Davos forum.

Airbus did not see the Chinese project to develop and market homemade large passenger aircraft as a threat and was not afraid of possible competition, the CEO added.

"Competition is always a good thing, it makes us nimble and innovative," Enders said.

The Chinese market was expected to be as important as the United States and European markets in the next 20 or 30 years, and one of Airbus's future strategies would be to enhance cooperation with China, he said.

China set up its first jumbo passenger aircraft company in Shanghai in May. The company, named Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (CACC), should give the country the capacity to build aircraft with a take-off weight of more than 100 tons or planes with more than 150 seats.

Jin Zhuanglong, the company's general manager, told Xinhua that "it is too early to set a timetable or make development strategy," adding that the CACC would pose no threat to jet-making giants like Boeing and Airbus.

Jin said China welcomed cooperation from foreign companies in the development of the new aircraft. However, the goals of the CACC for the first few years would be to establish an operating system and training talent, he said.

Enders also confirmed yesterday that the Tianjin-based Airbus A320 manufacturing plant would be officially inaugurated tomorrow.