HONG KONG Aircraft Engineering Co (Haeco) has been granted approval by the authorities in Xiamen, Fujian province, to set up an US$11 million joint-venture repair and overhaul facility for aircraft components. The joint venture, AlliedSignal Taeco Aerospace (Xiamen) Co, will be 65 per cent owned by AlliedSignal Aerospace of the United States, 25 per cent by Haeco and 10 per cent by Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Co (Taeco). The joint venture will be situated at Taeco's back-shop building at Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport and is scheduled to open by the end of the year. Andrew Herdman, managing director of Haeco and chairman of Taeco, said: 'This partnership will further strengthen Taeco's ability to provide a comprehensive overhaul service to its customers and affirm Xiamen's position as a leading aircraft maintenance centre in China.' AlliedSignal Aerospace is a unit of AlliedSignal Inc, which manufactures aerospace components. Taeco, meanwhile, is set to service its first Cathay Pacific Airways aircraft by early next month, as final approval is expected to be granted within weeks by mainland and Hong Kong authorities. The US$62 million maintenance facility is 41 per cent owned by Haeco, 20 per cent by the Xiamen government, 10 per cent by Cathay, 10 per cent by Singapore Airlines, 10 per cent by Japan Airlines and 9 per cent by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). A spokesman for Swire Pacific, which owns 27 per cent of Haeco, said final certification procedures were being processed by the regulatory CAAC and Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department. In order to allow it to service US-registered aircraft, it is also being certified by the American Federal Aviation Administration. European authorities are also involved in the certification process, as are Japan's Civil Aviation Board and Singapore's Civil Aviation Administration. The facility will employ about 600 staff on opening. Several groups of workers from China have been training at Haeco's Kai Tak airport base over the past two years.