China-Russia local cooperation on fast track
By Yin
Xinyu, Zhang Xiaodong, Qu Pei, People’s Daily
Local
cooperation between China and Russia has been prospering as the year of local cooperation
and exchange between the two countries is coming to an end. It is injecting new
impetus and connotation to the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of
coordination.
The infrastructure
connectivity between the two countries has been notably enhanced, with bridge,
road and cableway projects being built. They have also enjoyed a variety of
economic and cultural activities on both governmental and non-governmental
levels, holding forums, exhibitions, and sealing deals.
The two countries
have established two major regional cooperation mechanisms - the Council of
Cooperation between the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the
Volga Federal District and the Intergovernmental Commission for Cooperation of
the Northeast China and the Far East and Baikal Region of Russia, as well as
the local cooperation council of China-Russia Friendship Committee for Peace
and Development.
Besides,
they have also set up relations between 140 pairs of sister cities and
provincial-level regions. With these efforts, bilateral regional cooperation
has covered all fields and regions.
Yangtze-Volga cooperation has
witnessed improvement both in scale and quality. Last year, the trade volume between
Russia and six
Chinese provinces and municipality including Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi and Chongqing
reached nearly $5 billion, up 30 percent. Some provinces even witnessed growths
of over 80 percent.
China
has remained the largest trading partner of Russia’s Far East region for years.
Dozens of Chinese-funded enterprises have entered the leap-forward development
zone in the Far East and the free port of Vladivostok. China’s investment
projects in the region cover various sectors including agriculture, forestry,
building materials and commerce.
Russia
attaches great importance to the development of the Far East, and has approved
more than 30 acts and over 100 regulations to promote the construction of the leap-forward
development zone and the free port of Vladivostok, said Sergey Tyrtsev, First Deputy
Minister of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic.
The
cooperation between the Far East and China enjoys sound momentum in trade,
education, and culture. Over 70 percent of the foreign investors in the region
are from China, Tyrtsev introduced.
China-Russia
cooperation has seen a good start in 2019. According to Chinese statistics, in
the first four months of this year, bilateral trade volume reached $33.17
billion, up 5.8 percent year on year.
With the
rapid growth of bilateral trade, local cooperation has been advanced across the
board, witnessing increasingly closer investment cooperation. Enterprises from
the two countries are realizing in-depth exchanges thanks to the China-Russia
Expo, China-Russia Inter-regional Cooperation Forum and other bilateral forums
and exhibitions.
Maksimov
Nyurgum Romanovich, president of the Yakutia
branch of the Russia-China Friendship Association and director of the Institute
of Oriental Studies of the North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) said that his
university is a witness of the rapid development of Russia-China local
cooperation.
NEFU had no Chinese students
10 years ago, but now it has more than 100 and will receive another 100 this
fall, he introduced.
In
addition, the faculty members of the university have maintained close
cooperation with their Chinese partners. This summer, they will team up with
researchers from northeast China’s Heilongjiang province for a joint investigation
in the Arctic ports in Yakutia.
Education
is not the only field in which Yakutia hopes to cooperate with China. The
republic boasts rich tourism resources, vast tundra, and one of the coldest
permanently inhabited settlements on earth - Oymyakon, Maksimov said, adding
that Yakutia hopes to attract Chinese tourists to explore the mysteries there.
Local cooperation
between China and Russia enjoys great potential, said Chinese Ambassador to
Russia Li Hui, noting that the two countries will give full play to their cooperation
mechanisms at both government and local levels, enhance communication and
coordination on policy and regulation, so as to create a favorable business
environment.
China-Russia local cooperation on fast track
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