Moscow lures Chinese investment

BEIJING - Russia is looking east for Chinese investors amid souring ties with some Western countries.

During a China tour, officials from Moscow expressed their wishes to cooperate with Chinese enterprises as the Russian capital has planned a number of large-scale infrastructure projects.

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Leonid Kostroma, strategy deputy CEO of the Moscow City Investment Agency, told Xinhua recently that Chinese enterprises have rich experience in infrastructure construction and Moscow is willing to cooperate with them.

Projects include a traffic hub, hospitals, schools, industrial parks, gymnasiums and recreation facilities. They are estimated to be worth billions of US dollars.

To facilitate Chinese investment, Kostroma said the city will roll out a string of preferential measures, including favorable tax rates and streamlined approval procedures.

Moscow is the largest city in Russia and home to more than 12 million people. In 2013, the city attracted some $44.3 billion in fixed assets investment.

Economic cooperation between Moscow and Chinese enterprises has already begun.

In May, the China Railway Construction Corporation and the China International Fund Limited inked a deal with a Russian company to jointly invest $2 billion in a subway project in Moscow.

A number of other projects are under negotiation.

A delegation from the Moscow City Investment Agency visited Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong from April to May. They expressed their willingness to cooperate and shared details with Chinese entrepreneurs.