FARNBOROUGH, July 12. /TASS/. The development cost of the Sino-Russian wide-body aircraft will be up to $20 bln, president of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Yuri Slyusar said on Tuesday.

"As far as terms set out in the intergovernmental agreement with COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) are concerned, we are working on a parity basis. It is rather difficult to [assess] the program value with accuracy of a single dollar or ruble. According to different estimates, it varies from $13 bln to $20 bln, depending on what it will comprise," Slyusar said.

Arrangements were reached that the engineering center to deal with development of the aircraft would be based in Moscow. Final assembly of the aircraft will be implemented in Shanghai at plants that are of "high technology and used now for manufacturing of ARJ21 and C919 aircraft," the top manager said.

"The decision is largely conditioned by proximity to markets with higher capacity for supplies of this aircraft, therefore this is the agreement for the time being, although not a 100% one," Slyusar added.

Russia and China signed the relevant memorandum on development of a wide-body long-range aircraft with the capacity of 250-300 seats in 2014. The aircraft is to appear by 2025-2027.

The joint venture for manufacturing, sales and maintenance of the new aircraft will be registered by 2016.