China-Russia trade to hit record high in 2012

MOSCOW - China and Russia have witnessed strong momentum in their economic and trade cooperation, and bilateral trade volume is expected to hit a new high this year, China's Vice Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said on Wednesday.

China-Russia trade reached $73.6 billion in the first 10 months of 2012, up 13.4 percent from last year, Zhong told reporters.

China is Russia's biggest trade partner, while Russia is a major trade partner of China, the vice minister said.

Investment and economic and technology cooperation between China and Russia have been expanding steadily, with their two-way investment amounting to $4.1 billion, Zhong said.

On Wednesday, Zhong attended the 16th meeting of the Joint Commission for the Regular Meetings of Heads of Government of China and Russia as the Chinese secretary of the commission.

On energy cooperation, Zhong said the two countries have been making solid progress in promoting cooperation in coal, electricity, and new energy, and exploring new ways of cooperation in upstream and downstream integration of oil and gas.

As for financial cooperation, Zhong said local currency settlement between China and Russia has exceeded $2 billion since 2011, and that the establishment of China-Russia investment fund has promoted mutual investment by enterprises in both countries.

The Chinese official also praised the new achievements made by both countries in infrastructure, saying China and Russia have begun active discussion of infrastructure construction such as roads, railways, cross-border bridges, power grids and optical cable, and have launched a series of projects.