National years boost Chinese, Russian economic ties

MOSCOW— From sedans to electricity, Chinese and Russian companies are trading a much longer list of goods. Thevolume of annual bilateral trade is very likely to hit the 80 billion U.S. dollars in 2010 set by the Chinese and Russian governments.
The national theme years in China and Russia in the last two years have strengthened cooperation on trade and economy and yielded fruitful results. Economic and trade cooperation is an important component of the China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership.
In 2006, when the “Year of Russia” was held in China, bilateral trade volume reached a record high of 33.4 billion dollars, a 15-percent year-on-year increase. And in the first nine months of 2007, bilateral trade surged to 34.9 billion dollars, surpassing the total trade volume of 2006.
In Moscow this March, Chinese and Russian companies signed 21 contracts worth up to 4.3 billion dollars on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the “Year of China.” According to 17 of these contracts, China will sell automobiles, electric home appliance, sanitation facilities and agricultural products to Russia and buy goods such as machinery and steel products.
The other four contracts were signed for economic cooperation projects including timber processing, ship building and mine exploration. China has set a target of boosting its investment in Russia to 12 billion dollars by 2020. Some 30 joint economic projects, covering energy, investment, finance, communication to transportation, have been launched under the framework of the “Year of China.” In the energy sector, Russian companies have sent oil to China via railways, transported electricity to China’s border regions, prepared the construction of oil pipe lines to China and worked with Chinese companies on the Tianwan nuclear plant which began commercial operations in August.
China is now Russia’s third largest trade partner and Russia is China’s eighth largest. Bilateral trade has increased at an annual average rate of almost 30 percent for the past eight years, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou said earlier this month.

—The Daily Mail, China Daily news exchange item