C919 jet bound for airline to enter final assembly

CHINA’S first C919 narrowbody jet to be delivered to launch customer China Eastern Airlines is about to enter final assembly, China’s aviation regulator said Monday, with delivery due before the end of the year.

The C919, being built by planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC), will mark a milestone in a decade-long program to rival aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing. The C919 program’s certification board met in Shanghai on Sept. 10 and reviewed COMAC reports on batch production of the jet, the Eastern Region Administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on its social media account.

Guangzhou targets 660,000 affordable homes

CHINA’S southern city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, will build 660,000 affordable homes by 2025, aiming to ease the housing woes of young people, newspaper the Paper said yesterday, citing city government guidelines.

Authorities in China have stepped up supply of affordable housing and moved to cap the cost of renting a home in cities.

Canton Fair to resume offline exhibition

THE 130th session of the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, will resume offline activities, organizers said yesterday.

The fair, scheduled to kick off next month in southern China’s Guangdong Province, will be held both online and offline, Vice Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin told a press conference. The event will last five days and feature only one phase compared with three phases in previous sessions in view of the current pandemic control situation. The offline exhibition will cover an area of 400,000 square meters while 60,000 online booths will be set up for the virtual event, he added.

DeepRoute.ai raises US$300m from Alibaba, others

DOMESTIC autonomous driving startup DeepRoute.ai said yesterday it raised US$300 million from investors including e-commerce company Alibaba to expand its test fleet and develop technologies including self-driving trucks.

Other investors in the funding round include tech investor Jeneration Capital, Chinese automaker Geely and some previous investors, DeepRoute.ai said. It did not disclose its valuation. The investment comes as automakers and technology firms are ploughing in billions of dollars into autonomous driving.