China, Russia vow to scale up trade

BEIJING - Senior Chinese and Russian officials have agreed to scale up bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in Beijing, April 15, 2013. [Photo / Xinhua]

"(We need) to take advantage of the high-level political relationship with a view of achieving more results of extensive, practical cooperation that will benefit the people of the two countries more substantially," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said as he met with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in Beijing on Monday.

As important neighbors, China and Russia should give play to their complementary advantages to expand and upgrade their trade cooperation, Li said.

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli also held talks with Shuvalov in Beijing on Monday.

Zhang said conditions have ripened for carrying out large-scale economic cooperation between China and Russia.

"The Chinese side is ready to increase investment in Russia by carrying out a number of large-scale cooperation projects of strategic importance," Zhang said.

He called on the two sides to open up wider areas, take bigger steps and reach greater depths in bilateral joint work to realize the goals set by the heads of state of the two countries.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia last month, the two sides agreed to boost the annual trade volume to $100 billion by 2015 and to $200 billion by 2020.

The two-way trade volume stood at $88 billion in 2012. By the end of 2012, Chinese companies had invested a total of $4.4 billion in Russia.

Shuvalov said Russia is ready to expand cooperation with China in the areas of energy, finance, industrial modernization and infrastructure.

Zhang expressed the hope that Russia will continue to improve its investment environment in order to lift the confidence of Chinese companies investing in the country.

Shuvalov said Russia holds an open attitude toward Chinese investment. He welcomed Chinese companies to invest in Russia, saying his country is working on creating a quality environment for foreign investors.