Both countries can do more to advance high-level trade: expert
Bilateral trade between China and Russia will continue to increase in 2017 and both countries are beefing up efforts to strengthen strategic cooperation in sectors including energy resources, aerospace and cross-border infrastructure, a senior Chinese official noted on Tuesday.
"Economic and trade ties between China and Russia are a vital economic foundation of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, and with increasing practical cooperation, the prospects for bilateral ties are bright," Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng told the Global Times at a press conference in Beijing.
Given the sluggish world economy, bilateral trade between China and Russia rose 2.2 percent year-on-year to $69.5 billion in 2016, Gao said, noting that the structure of trade between the two countries has been optimized.
Investment cooperation also made strides in 2016. China's investment into Russia has so far amounted to $42 billion, making China to be Russia's fourth-largest investment source country, according to Gao.
He said that cooperation in the energy resources sector has made great progress. China imported around 52.5 million tons of crude oil from Russia last year, up 23.7 percent on a yearly basis, and Russia has become China's largest crude oil import source country.
"We believe that with joint efforts, high-level political relations between the two countries will be transformed into more practical cooperative results, and the quality and level of bilateral economic and trade ties will be further enhanced to promote the sound growth of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Russia," the minister said.
Although bilateral trade is expected to rise this year, pressure and challenges persist.
There is still a distance for both countries to reach the target of $200 billion bilateral trade as of the end of 2020, which was set by both governments in 2012, Jiang Yi, a senior research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
As China's economic growth is entering the "new normal" stage and Russia is adjusting its economic structure, more time is needed for both countries to realize high-level economic and trade ties, Jiang said.
Jiang noted that "both countries are expected to first address their own problems in economic development before they can improve the quality of bilateral trade.
"Except for the energy and resources sector, domestic companies' new investment focus on the Russian markets includes infrastructure and the agricultural products sector," he said.
