Russia and China to increase trade turnover

By Rhod Mackenzie

The volume of trade between Russia and China may exceed $200 billion by the end of this year, the Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov told reporters in Beijing.

The Russian delegation led by Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov is on a working visit to Beijing from 19 to 20 September. As part of the visit, the 26th meeting of the Russian-Chinese subcommittee on trade and economic cooperation will be held, and a number of business meetings are planned - with the Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, Wang Wentao, with the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China, Hu Heping, and other Chinese colleagues.

According to Reshetnikov, the main indicator of mutual interest between Russian and Chinese business is the growth of trade turnover, which increased by 30% in the first half of the year.
"This suggests that the goal set by the leaders of our countries to reach $200 in trade turnover by 2024 will be achieved this year, and we will clearly exceed this bar," he said.

According to the Russian minister, the mutual interest in the trade and economic sphere between the countries is also reflected in the intensity of mutual exchanges, joint forums, visits of Russian businessmen to China and Chinese businessmen to Russia, holding of various business dialogues and events.

"The situation is developing. We are moving more and more from trade to investment, we have a large portfolio of investment projects, about 170 billion US dollars, the volume of investment in 79 projects, this is if we take only large projects. The implementation of such large-scale cooperation projects will lead to further growth in mutual trade," Reshetnikov added.

The minister expressed confidence that Russia and China have the potential for further development of trade and economic relations.

"Firstly, there is potential for trade, China is the largest consumer market and we are negotiating further access to this market, including for certain types of our agricultural products," he said.

Reshetnikov added that Russia was also building new chains of cooperation with China, expanding supplies to that country. According to him, trade turnover between the countries is generally balanced.

According to previously released data from the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China, trade turnover between Russia and China in January-August 2023 increased by 32% and amounted to $155.1 billion.

At the end of 2022, trade turnover between the Russian Federation and China increased by 29.3% and amounted to a record $190.271 billion. The leaders of Russia and China had previously set the goal of doubling trade turnover between the two countries, from $100 billion a year in 2018 to $200 billion by 2024.
Following the negotiations between the leaders of the two countries, which took place in Beijing on 4 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had outlined a new goal for increasing trade turnover between Russia and China - $250 billion a year.