The management of the Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Enterprise has reached an agreement with China on supply of 10 aircraft, a source in the Kharkov regional administration has told the Depo.Kharkov publication.
According to the source, the possibility of selling licenses for production of Antonov aircraft to China is currently being considered, but "it is very difficult franchising."
"Manufacturing airplanes is not like baking a cake. It is necessary to establish a full production cycle in addition to a license, but this is not beneficial to Ukraine. The Soviet Union had such experience, when Soviet engineers opened aircraft factories in Pakistan and India. Today, these countries are our competitors on the aircraft manufacturing market," the source said.
The source stressed that the issue of signing an agreement with Kazakhstan on production of aircraft at the Kharkov aircraft factory for the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs is also being discussed currently. However, the talks are “at an impasse” because of the large-scale devaluation of the Kazakh currency, which has depreciated by almost 40%. The source stressed that the Kharkov aircraft factory has already manufactured one airplane for Kazakhstan.
