Economic forum to further promote China-Russia practical cooperation: Chinese vice premier

China expects the ongoing Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) to further promote all-round practical cooperation with Russia, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said Saturday.

Leading a Chinese delegation of government officials and entrepreneurs, Wang met with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday and attended the plenary meeting of the EEF held from Thursday to Saturday in Russia's Far Eastern city Vladivostok.

During his meeting with Putin, Wang said the EEF was a chance to implement the consensus reached by leaders of China and Russia.

The Chinese side pays great attention to its cooperation with Russia on the development of the Far East, Wang told Putin, adding that new cooperation spaces should be jointly explored in resource development, processing and manufacturing, modern agriculture and so on.

On Saturday, Wang co-chaired the first meeting of regional cooperation councils of China's northeastern provinces and Russia's Far East with his Russian counterpart Yury Trutnev, which was held as a parallel session of the EEF.

At the council meeting, Wang expressed China's confidence in Russia's Far East development project, especially considering related strategies and policies Putin introduced Friday in his opening speech delivered to the EEF.

"The regional cooperation council was established after the meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin in May," Wang said. "The high-level council involves many departments from both sides, and hopefully would become the main mechanism to implement regional cooperation projects."

Wang said Russia's Far East project could bring mutual systematic development to the region as well as China's northeastern provinces.

Moreover, he said that both sides should create new cooperative formats, enlarge financing channels, and coordinate joint efforts on prior development projects and the elimination of obstacles.

Wang said the Chinese side is willing to actively take part in the investment, construction and operation of Russia's Vladivostok free port and special development zone.

The China-Russia regional cooperation and development investment fund is currently under preparation to mainly support the regional development projects, in which China has encouraged all commercial and governmental financial institutions to participate, Wang said.

The prior cooperation projects include port logistics, resources deep-processing, agriculture products processing, scientific research and education, tourism, transportation infrastructure and so on.

Wang called on governments of both countries to provide favorable and practical development strategies for enterprises to expand business cooperation.

Trutnev agreed with Wang and said the Russian side is willing to work with China on strategy coordination and exchange, providing policy convenience to companies from both countries.

Wang also attended the round table of Chinese and Russian businessmen on Saturday and encouraged all enterprises to dock and explore more projects. Endi