China and Russia meet to prioritise investment
April 15, 2013, 9:46 am

Xi Jinping (r) visited Russia shortly after being sworn in as China’s president [Xinhua]

Shuvalov referred to thousands of Russian entrepreneurs who are seeking to expand investment collaboration with their Chinese partners.

Gaoli was quoted by ITAR TASS news agency as saying that during today’s talks, both sides stressed the importance of adhering to an array of previously clinched high-level agreements between Russia and China.

Earlier last week, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) had stressed on the need for Russia and China to boost bilateral investment cooperation.

“The two countries have been devoted to investment cooperation in recent years, yet we have not seen enough successful projects,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the RDIF, said in an interview with Xinhua.

The RDIF and China Investment Corporation (CIC) established the $2 billion US Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) when President Vladimir Putin visited China last June.

Close on the heels of the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Russia, his first since his swearing-in, China has announced plans to step up investment in the country.

Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province is planning to increase investment in Russia by $1 billion by the year 2015, and $2 billion dollars by 2020.

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.

With inputs from Agencies