China and Russia were Important Economic and Technical Coope

Chinese President Hu Jintao said on March 22 that China and Russia were important economic and technical cooperation partners of each other.

　　Hu Jintao made the above comment at the opening ceremony of a Summit for Chinese and Russian Economic, Industry and Commercial circles.

　　Hu Jintao said, economic and technical cooperation was the key part of China-Russia strategic and cooperative partnership¹ and the important base to develop relations and improve the well-being² of people of the two countries. Now, China and Russia were important economic and technical cooperation partners of each other, mainly indicating in the following aspects:

　　Economic and technical cooperation developed with a high speed. In 1996, China-Russia bilateral³ trade amounted to US$6.8 billion and reached US$29.1 billion in 2005. Two-way investment was established and a batch⁴ of big cooperation projects were launched one by one in energy resources exploitation, hi-tech industry and project contracting.

　　Major fields of cooperation were confirmed. China and Russia were strongly complementary to each other economically and had requirements for each other in market, technology, resources, talent and commodities. The two countries made an agreement on major fields of future bilateral cooperation: expand the share of hi-tech products in bilateral trade, steadily⁵ enlarge the business scale of energy resources commodities; enhance two-way investment in home appliances, communication, infrastructure⁶ construction, and oil, forest and mineral exploitation, and deep processing; launch industrialization cooperation of science and technology achievements in aerospace⁷ and aviation, machinery⁸ manufacture, nuclear energy, new material and biology technology, and talent exchange.

　　Intent of cooperation among enterprises increased day by day. In recent years, more and more Chinese and Russian enterprises entered into markets of each other and made better achievements. Communication equipments and home appliances from China were gradually recognized by Russian consumers. Oil and gas enterprises from Russia became the important cooperation partners of China in energy resources. The successful examples of enterprises' cooperation between China and Russia enhanced the willing and confidence of more enterprises to launch cooperation