Last month his zone signed a memorandum of understanding with a US company to co-fund a private equity worth 10 billion yuan for the development of general aviation in China, he says.

"That's a good first step for us in attracting foreign investors. There is about 250 million yuan in the previous fund we set up with the local government in Shaanxi and private companies. With small amounts like that you can hardly play serious games, as with general aviation."

The auto industry in China is reckoned to employ 40 million people, and if the general-aviation industry is to take off it will have its work cut out to provide the labor and skills needed. However, there is a gaping hole at the moment, and that is providing huge opportunities to those who can offer pilot training, product support and maintenance and more.

"There are not enough pilots," says Jackson of Genesis Investment, which began to look at investing in general aviation since last year. "Call any flight training school in the US and they will probably tell you there are some Chinese pilots training there. It is even difficult to find catering companies for business jets in China. If you want to have food you need to call those commercial airlines for help."

Garrison of Bell Helicopter says the rapidly increasing demand for helicopters in China will require thousands of professionals to fly and maintain these aircraft.

"There is not only an opportunity to help create these jobs, but also ensure China has access to the best operational and technical training possible."

Although he says he is not satisfied with Bell's market share in China, the company is clearly optimistic about its future in the country, having signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangzhou Civil Aviation College to build Bell's first maintenance training facility in the country. Bell says it will be authorized to conduct maintenance and repair training for two Bell helicopter models. Eventually it could expand to give maintenance training on other models.

"We are planning for the future," Garrison says. "If you assume you will grow, it is better to be ahead than behind."

The world's leading business-jet maker, Gulfstream of the US, is also moving to strengthen its position in China by adding more Chinese personnel to its Beijing Service Center, which opened last month.

"It is our first center in the Chinese mainland," says Roger Sperry, a regional senior vice-president with Gulfstream. "With this center it will be more cost effective for our customers in China to have services in the mainland rather than going to Hong Kong or Singapore."

Sperry says that with demand for Gulfstream's business jets gradually shifting from North America to Asia and Latin America, more support staff are needed.

"China is one of the major driving forces for our new orders."

Last year 102 Gulfstream jets were stationed in China, he says; 10 years earlier there were none.

The company has already added about 1,400 staff this year, including those at the Beijing Service Center, and in a department in Hong Kong it also opened this year. How many of those recruits are locals is unclear.

Some aircraft makers have gone further to set up local production, creating more high-tech jobs in China. Diamond Aircraft of Austria, a single-engine plane maker, has had a joint venture in China since 2005.

"Having a local production base in China is an advantage as we can reach markets we couldn't access before," says Gernot Brabner, executive general manager of Binao-Diamond Aircraft of Shandong.

"We've even considered increasing our capacity from 60 aircraft to 100 a year from next year."

Cessna Aircraft signed agreements this year joining the municipal government of Chengdu, in Sichuan province, and the State-own Aviation Industry Corp of China in a joint venture to produce mid-sized business jets and possibly other new models in the future.

Many more joint ventures are expected to mushroom in China, as happened with the car industry, experts say.

For Bingham, of Piaggio Aero, the lack of infrastructure, such as airports, and the shortage of personnel, including pilots, holds challenges for the industry in the short term.

"But the Chinese government has committed so much to developing this sector, and they have realized that they are way behind on aviation. General aviation is going develop in the typical Chinese way. After being the last, they intend to be the first."

mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/21/2012 page1)