China Province to invest $1bn in Russia
April 1, 2013, 6:02 am

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (2nd L) and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov (2nd R) sign the document on a bilateral negotiation plan of foreign ministries in 2013, in Moscow [Xinhua]

Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province is planning to increase investment in Russia by 1 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2015, and 2 billion dollars by 2020, local authorities said on Sunday.

The Chinese province, which borders Russia, plans to boost its trade volume to $26 billion by 2015, and $52 billion by 2020, sources with the provincial commercial department were quoted by Xinhua.

Heilongjiang accounts for about a quarter of China’s total trade with Russia.

Trade between the province and Russia in 2012 rose 12.2 per cent year on year to $21.3 billion, according to a government statistics communique earlier this month.

“The fact that I visit Russia, our friendly neighbour, shortly after assuming presidency is a testimony to the great importance China places on its relations with Russia,” Xi told Russian media in Moscow earlier in March.

China agreed to double oil supplies and has thrown its support behind the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Russia.

The China Development Bank Corp. has also agreed to lend OAO Rosneft, the state oil producer, $2 billion backed by 25 years of oil supplies.

In exchange, the China National Petroleum Corp. will be granted access to Arctic resources.

Gazprom is also planning to conclude a 30-year gas-supply contract to provide 68 billion cubic metres of Russian gas to China annually beginning 2014.

Over the past five years trade volume between the two countries has more than doubled.

After Xi’s visit, the Heilongjiang commercial department has held seminars to look into deepening economic and trade relations with Russia.

Department head Meng Xiangjun said Xi’s visit to Russia would bring the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries to a new stage and that cooperation would be boosted in fields including energy, agriculture, forestry, infrastructure and logistics.

With inputs from Xinhua