It is possible to increase mutual turnover between China and Russia to $200 billion by 2020, Director of the Department of Eurasian Affairs of China’s Ministry of Commerce Ling Ji said.
“In 2014, we reached a record of $95b. Our goal of reaching $100b in 2015 and $200b in 2020 is very ambitious. We assume the time schedules, goals and programs that we chalked out together with the Russian side are quite realistic,” he said, Tass reported.
He added that the development of energy sector and new “gas contracts and increase of crude oil supplies from Russia” will help double the turnover between the two neighbors. Another important factor will be the development of China’s processing industry, “mutual supplies of agricultural products and implementation of several big projects as well as construction of agricultural infrastructure,” Ling Ji said.
“An investment program has been worked out. Those are main large-scale projects with participation of investment capital on the territory of the Russian Federation. We think the Russian government is taking active and efficient measures to improve the investment climate,” he said, adding that “a drop in growth rates of the Russian economy is also having impact on the Chinese investors”.
Railway Bridge
To improve the Sino-Russian border trade route, work on a major infrastructure project – the building of a long-planned railway bridge over the Amur river – has been accelerated, China said.
The $431 million project is the first railway bridge to cross a river linking China with Russia.
The Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Railway Bridge, which crosses the Heilongjiang River known as Amur in Russia, is slated for completion by the end of 2016, according to China’s Heilongjiang Daily.
The 2,215-meter bridge will link Tongjiang city in Heilongjiang Province with Nizhneleninskoye in Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast. 1,900 meters will be within China’s borders.
China plans to invest 2.64 billion yuan ($431 million) in the project through the RCIF [Russia-China Investment Fund], including the construction of the main bridge and an approach road.
The project was given a go-ahead following Russian President Putin’s visit to Shanghai last year. The bridge will be able to handle 21 million tons of traffic a year.
The new export corridor will make it easier to transport oil and gas from the new fields developed in Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
It will also significantly increase the turnover of goods and competitiveness of Russian exporters in the region. The new route will reduce the distance to the end customer by about 700 kilometers compared to other rail routes.
Heilongjiang accounts for about a quarter of China’s total trade with Russia. Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province is planning to increase investment in Russia by $1 billion by the end of 2015, and $2 billion by 2020.
The Chinese province, which borders Russia, plans to boost its trade volume to $26 billion by 2015, and $52 billion by 2020.
