BRASILIA, April 16 (Reuters) - Brazilian Embraer ERJ.N, the world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer, is looking at producing small passenger jets in Russia, the head of Russia's VEB bank, a potential partner in the project, told Reuters.
Embraer EMBR3.SA plans to the airplanes at a Russian aviation plant in the city of Kazan, and sell them to the local market as Russian companies -- including Sukhoi Civil Aircraft -- do not produce that type of jets.
“We are in talks with our Brazilian partners on the project of passenger jets with the capacity up to 50 seats for use on Russian regional routes. We don’t produce such planes in Russia,” VEB head Vladimir Dmitriyev said.
State-controlled VEB, charged by the government to support infrastructure projects, estimates the total project costs of “hundreds of million of dollars” without elaborating.
Brazil’s state-run development bank BNDES is also taking part in the talks, Dmitriyev said.
Russia is increasingly looking abroad for technologies and expertise to help diversify its economy from oil and commodities by developing domestic industry. (Reporting by Denis Dyomkin; writing by Dmitry Sergeyev; editing by Simon Jessop)
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