General Electric Co is confident about winning contracts to supply engines for China's big aircraft project, the company's China chief said on Monday.

GE Aviation, an engine supplier for Boeing , also provides engines to China's first self-developed regional jet ARJ21, which completed its first test flight late last year.

The fact that we are on the first plane...gives us confidence. But the thing that gives me most confidence is that I am very sure of our aircraft engine product. I think we have the best product, GE's China President Mark Norbom told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry event.

Beijing had made public an ambitious goal to manufacture large passenger jets with more than 150 seats and freighters capable of handling more than 100 tonnes of cargo to take on Boeing and Airbus .

So far, the initial design of the jet, code named C919, has been completed. But the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (CACC), which developed the jet, still needs to make major breakthroughs in engine technologies and advanced composite materials, the state-owned CCTV said in May.

To make sure that the jet is available for delivery in 2016, CACC may use foreign-made engines to power the jet, it added.

Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies , is also among the contestants to supply engines to C919, a company executive told Reuters previously.

China is expected to pick suppliers for its in-house designed big jet in the coming months, Norbom said.

(Reporting by Fang Yan and Jacqueline Wong)

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