GORKI, September 08. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and China will sign a contract in October for drawing up an engineering design for a long-haul wide-bodied airliner, Russia's Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin announced on Monday.

When speaking at a Vice-Premiers' meeting held by Head of Government Dmitry Medvedev, Rogozin said, "In October, we must reach out to signing already an engineering design together with our Chinese counterparts through the channels of the United Aircraftbuilding Corporation for a long-haul wide-bodied passenger airliner. The market in China (in this respect) is rather vast, and this renders this kind of production profitable in principle".

Considering that almost 80% of long-haul civil airliners in Russia are imported, the implementation of a joint project with China must be started immediately, Rogozin pointed out.

"On the whole, the potential of Russia's aircraft building industry is considerable enough," the Vice-Premier said.