China builds on border trade (3)

Challenges ahead

Wanda Group invested 1.5 billion yuan in 2012 to build a 100,000 sq m commercial plaza, including supermarkets, restaurants and KTVs, which will be put into use in 2014. Meanwhile Beijing Taiai Peptide Biological Engineering Technology Co inked a 1 billion yuan investment in a recent promotion to produce collagen peptide in Manzhouli out of raw materials from ox and sheep bones from Russia and Mongolia.

Russia's accession to the WTO does not necessarily mean the opening of a "golden door" to China because obstacles remain across the border.

"For all the difficulties of the accession process, it would be wrong to assume that the hard work is over. In fact, the main challenges lie ahead," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said in a speech in Moscow on Jan 18.

Fu Jianzhong, 62, chairman of Zhejiang Eternal Industry Group, saw the joint company, Khabarovsk Muxing Timber Co established by Fu and Heilongjiang State-owned Chenneng Trade Co in 2003, closed down in March 2007 by a local procuratorate in Russia for alleged timber stealing. Assets worth 15 billion yuan were auctioned following charges of failure to pay taxes while the 49-year business operation rights of a 247,000-hectare forest farm were taken back, Xinhua News Agency reported on Jan 4.

Russia pledged to enhance its business environment from the current 120th place ranked by the World Bank to 50th by 2015 and in the top 20 by 2018, according to a guideline from the Russian Presidential Press and Information Office in late December.

Contact the reporters at [email protected] and [email protected]