Experts and officials from China and Russia attending the Ninth
Seminar on Sino-Russian Regional Cooperation in Beijing on Monday
agreed that they should accelerate bilateral trade to strengthen
strategic cooperation.
Sino-Russian trade relations have picked up in recent years and
regional synergy has diversified, said Assistant Foreign Minister
Li Hui.
Bilateral trade reached a record high of US$15.8 billion last
year.
Li attributed the fruitful cooperation to the many advantages
that the two countries possess, such as their geographical
locations and strong desire for accord.
Sergei Tsyplakov, Russia's trade representative to China, noted
that both bilateral trade and areas of regional cooperation,
particularly border trade, have continued to grow.
The old bilateral cooperation model limited exchanges to those
between Russia and China's northeast, he said. Nowadays, other
provinces and cities in China, such as Shandong, Guangdong and
Sichuan provinces and Shanghai Municipality, have set up direct
links with Russia.
Tsyplakov said bilateral relations will further develop as long
as high-level exchanges are maintained and cooperation between
large enterprises is strengthened.
China and Russia share a border that stretches for more than
4,300 kilometers, creating a plethora of trade possibilities.
Russia is China's eighth biggest trade partner and China is
Russia's fourth largest.
However, Russia's share of China's total foreign trade volume
has been declining. In 2003 the proportion was 1.9 percent,
compared with 3.7 percent in 1990.
Li Jianmin, a researcher on Russian issues, said the decline
occurred because the Sino-Russian trade structure is very simple:
it mainly comprises raw materials, with high-tech and
high-value-added products making up a very small proportion. Also,
she noted, the countries have too few large cooperative investment
projects.
Moreover, several bilateral trade bottlenecks exist, she
said.
But despite the problems, Li said it was clear that the
countries were complementary, as long as their economies continued
to grow.
(China Daily April 20, 2004)