China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I), the country's leading military aircraft maker, said on Sunday that it has set up a finance unit to fund the company's future development.

"We have more or less finished building our financial platform. AVIC I is China's first military industrial enterprise to have both an international leasing unit and a finance unit", said Zuo Ming, general manager of the company.

The manufacturer of China's new-generation fighter aircraft, the Jian-10 (Fighter-10), set up its international leasing unit in January this year.

The newly-founded finance unit is a nonbank financial institution made up of the reshuffled finance firms of two AVIC I subsidiaries, Xi'an Aircraft Industry Co. Ltd. and Guizhou Aviation Industry Co Ltd.

Funded by AVIC I and eleven of its subsidiaries, the finance unit has registered capital of one billion yuan (128 million U.S. dollars).

AVIC I said its cooperation with China Development Bank, China Everbright Bank and China CITIC Bank has provided great impetus to its development since it was founded in 1999.

AVIC I successfully developed China's first turbofan regional jet, the ARJ 21, which can carry 70 to 110 passengers.

The company is also developing China's first jumbo aircraft.

AVIC I is a ultra large state-owned industrial group and provides the Chinese armed forces with 90 percent of their airborne weapons. It has already produced 1,500 aircraft, 50,000 aero-engines and over 10,000 missiles.

Company sales grew six years in a row to reach 80 billion yuan in 2006, up 15.7 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, profits reached three billion yuan, up 42 percent.

Zhang Xinguo, vice general manager of AVIC I, has said his company hopes to rank among the top 500 global companies by 2010.