First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov and Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Han Zheng chaired the ninth meeting of the Russian-Chinese Intergovernmental Commission on Investment Cooperation.
The sides discussed the current state of Russian-Chinese investment interaction and its development prospects. The secretariats of the Commission, the Consultative Entrepreneurs Committee, state development institutions, companies, and representatives of administrations of Russian regions and Chinese provinces submitted the results of their work. The sides emphasised bilateral cooperation in the field of transport and logistics infrastructure and gas chemistry.
Opening the session, Andrei Belousov noted that China is Russia’s key trade and investment partner. In January-September 2022 alone, bilateral trade volumes rose by 30 percent. The First Deputy Prime Minister expressed confidence that mutual trade had impressive potential for development. “In the first six months of 2022, Russia accumulated 75 percent more direct foreign investment from China. It is highly important to continue facilitating expanded mutual trade and investment, to support investment projects in the most promising sectors, including gas chemical and petrochemical sectors, transport, infrastructure, green and high technologies,” Andrei Belousov noted.
Andrei Belousov noted that substantial results have been achieved this year. Traffic has been launched via the Nizhneleninskoye-Tongjiang and Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridges, and a railway grain terminal has been built in the Khabarovsk Territory. Kanikurgan, a new vehicle checkpoint, has started operating on the Russian-Chinese border, and it has handled the first 250 containers.
The Russian side said it is interested in involving Chinese partners in major projects to build the Amur gas chemical complex near Svobodny in the Far Eastern Federal District and to set up gas chemical and gas processing complexes near Ust-Luga in the Leningrad Region.
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Vladimir Ilyichev, secretary of the Commission’s Russian section, noted that on November 3 the sides agreed to include three new projects in the Commission’s investment portfolio. One of them aims to set up a border transport and logistic zone near the Zabaikalsk railway station. Under another project, both countries are to build an electric vehicle enterprise in the Irkutsk Region. There are also plans to establish a circular economy industrial park on Sakhalin Island. “This year, we updated the 2018 memorandum between Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development and China’s National Development and Reform Commission on strengthening investment cooperation further, and we signed its new version. The document formalises a number of new aspects, including the next-generation power industry, high technologies and infrastructure development,” Vladimir Ilyichev said.
Sakhalin Region Governor Valery Limarenko also took part in the meeting. He noted that thanks to its location the region played a special role in the development of bilateral ties. Sakhalin is developing the new low-carbon business. In 2025, Rosatom will build a blue hydrogen plant which will become the centre of a new hydrogen cluster. According to Valery Limarenko, the Korsakov seaport is to be overhauled in the next three years, and it will become the starting point of the Northern Sea Route.
During the meeting, the sides also discussed the need to lift restrictions and simplify procedures linked with railway and road traffic on the Russian-Chinese border, as well as the importance of efforts to help expand freight transhipment capabilities at trans-border checkpoints for supplying more grain and oil-yielding crops to China.
Summing up the results, Andrei Belousov noted the positive achievements of joint work and the importance of implementing agreements reached at the meeting.
