China and Russia signed eight agreements in Beijing on Thursday to boost bilateral investment, trade and technical cooperation.

The signing of the agreements, covering sectors such as trade, energy, car production and development of infrastructure, marked the beginning of Sino-Russian Investment Promotion Week.

Two of the eight agreements relate to joint mining exploration. The other agreements include the setting up of a car assembly factory, a glass factory and wood processing facilities.

The contracted investment volume from the Chinese side is 800 million U.S. dollars.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said the China-Russia trade volume was expected to reach 60 billion to 80 billion U.S. dollars by 2010, and China's total investment volume in Russia will reach its target of 12 billion dollars before 2020.

Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice Director with the State Development and Reform Commission, said the two countries' cooperation in energy would increase in the future.

Speaking at a Sino-Russian trade forum in Beijing, Zhang said the energy cooperation between the two countries had entered a new phase, especially the joint oil exploration project in Veninsky Block of Sakhalin region and the joint operation of Udmurtneft Petroliem Company.

The government encourages Chinese firms to engage more in the joint exploration of ores of iron, zinc, lead, and copper in regions such as Chita Oblist, and Tuva Republic, Zhang said.

Trade volume between China and Russia reached 29.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2005. In the first nine months of this year, the bilateral trade volume totaled 24.64 billion dollars, up 18.8 percent on the previous year.

The Sino-Russian Investment Promotion Week will feature 13 promotional activities aimed at boosting bilateral investment, as part of the "Year of Russia" in China which is scheduled to conclude on Thursday evening.

More than 200 activities were held during the "Year of Russia", which helped strengthen the traditional friendship between the two countries and push forward the China-Russia strategic partnership.

Source: Xinhua