PM says Russian-Chinese trade turnover may reach $200 bln

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has set a new level for bilateral trade between Russia and China, saying that a level of $200 billion is quite achievable.

"Bilateral trade is actively developing, and this year we will approach the level of $100 billion, which seemed fantastic to us 10 years ago; now we are speaking about other levels, about the possibility of reaching $200 billion of trade turnover, and I believe this figure to be quite realizable for our countries if we actively promote cooperation in the agreed spheres," Medvedev said at a press conference after the 23rd regular meeting between the Russian and Chinese government heads.

The Russian prime minister reported that he agreed with his Chinese counterpart on a number of additional steps for support for small businesses, the development of electronic trade and the development of payment system. Medvedev also promised to continue work to lift barriers in different spheres, not just in the bilateral format. He stressed the importance of linking the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Medvedev added that the two countries have a number of investment projects in the energy, oil, gas and oil refining industries, high technologies, including manned space navigation, the establishment of new materials and the creation of artificial intelligence. It was decided to pay special attention to issues of developing the Far East and wood processing. There are special prospects in agriculture, Medvedev said. "We increased the exports of Russian agricultural products to China, and at the same time the Chinese partners are working in the same direction, and we are definitely interested in implementing new projects, including exporting Russian soybeans to China and a number of other areas, that is the development of transport-logistics capabilities," the prime minister explained.