Russia, China pledge to step up economic cooperation

Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui and Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs president Alexander Shokhin committed to increasing trade and economic cooperation between the two countries at a meeting in Moscow Friday.

Li spoke highly of the rapid development of the China-Russia strategic partnership of cooperation, as well as the contribution made by Shokhin and the Russian Union.

Li said he hoped the Union would make full use of its advantage, and play a positive role in facilitating exchanges between enterprises and guilds from the two countries to raise cooperation to a new high.

He said the Chinese embassy in Russia was willing to provide all necessary assistance to this end.

Shokhin said Russia and China had made rich achievements in cooperation in various fields. Despite a decline in bilateral trade amid the global economic crisis, the Chinese investment in Russia kept growing and the bilateral trade structure continued to improve, he said.

Shokhin said his union would always seek to promote dialogue and exchanges between the two countries' industrial sectors and expand bilateral cooperation in a bid to contribute more to the continued and sound development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Source:Xinhua