"It will be paramount for the Canadian industry to establish international partnerships of a scale sufficiently large to address the new competitive environment of the next decades, and China provides a unique possibility for that," says Hachey.
"We hope our Canadian prime minister will be visiting China in the coming months to support the development of such a partnership.''
Hachey was speaking on the first day of a two-day summit organized by the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, which represents the interests of more than 400 aerospace companies.
Officials hope the First Canadian Aerospace Summit will become an annual event.
Hachey noted that competition is fierce among the top five countries in aerospace: France, Germany, the U.K., the United States and Canada.
"And we are now seeing China, India and Russia and Brazil strengthening their positions as aerospace manufacturing countries," he added.
Hachey says China is just one example of where Canadian companies should broaden their horizons.
"Companies like Bombardier and others should have partnerships on the world scale if we want to really compete," he said.
"If we look at other competitors like Brazil, the first country their president visited when he took power was China."
Hachey also noted that several world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, have worked to establish bilateral agreements with China.
The aerospace executive also says he's optimistic about the future of the Canadian industry — despite the mood of caution in the global economy.
He pointed to an October 2010 Deloitte report that states Canada has the opportunity to double employment in the aerospace industry to 158,000 by the end of the decade.
"That's an employment growth rate of more than seven per cent a year, every year until 2020," Hachey said.
One of several reasons cited for the growth is the projected demand for aircraft over the next 20 years will be worth an estimated $3.2 trillion, with nearly one-third coming from the Asia-Pacific region.
One factor driving that is the world's commercial airline fleets are aging and will have to be replaced.
Hachey also says he's also looking forward to consultations to be held to develop the framework for a policy "to maximize the competitiveness of Canada's aerospace and space industry."
The federal government announced in its last budget it will review its policies and programs. The Aerospace Industries Association of Canada was mandated to lead the consultations.
Association president Jim Quick says he doesn't see any problem lumping the space industry into the consultations with the aeronautics industry.
"I'm not getting any feedback that tells me that people don't want to be part of that group. . as a matter of fact they want to be part of it," he added.