Spotlight: Russia's Far East boasts great potential for promoting economic ties with China

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is currently on an official visit to Russia to discuss the development and expansion of bilateral cooperation in key areas and projects.

One of the opportunities for both nations to deepen their joint work is the development of Russia's Far East, a vast region with great prospects for cooperation in such areas as agriculture, infrastructure as well as oil and gas.

The Far Eastern Federal District of Russia covers an area of over 6 million square km, accounting for over 36 percent of the country. The district is rich in natural resources, including oil, natural gas, metals and timber.

With a giant push to attract investment from and strengthen relations with China, Japan, South Korea and other Asia-Pacific countries, the Russian government is actively building the free port of Vladivostok in the Far East and a number of priority development areas.

The length of the China-Russia border in the Far East is more than 4,000 km. Russian experts believe that its favorable geographical location promotes the development of close cooperation in various sectors there.

Tatyana Nochyovkina, head of the Scientific Department of the Far Eastern State Technical Fisheries University, told Xinhua that China-Russia relations in the Far East are strategic.

Russia and China may create a long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation mechanism in the Far East, as Russia needs to develop the region, while China is interested in the rich resources there, said the expert.

Oil and gas are among the priority sectors of bilateral cooperation.

On Jan. 1, 2011, the first branch of the Russia-China oil pipeline, a branch of Russia's Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean project, was commissioned to supply China with 15 million tons of crude oil per year.

In August this year, PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer, announced the construction of the second branch of the oil pipeline near Jagdaqi in northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province.

Under the contract signed in May 2014 between Russian gas giant Gazprom and PetroChina, Russia will supply China with natural gas via the eastern route of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline from 2018.

Wheat is one of the main crops produced in the Far East next to soybeans and some others, while the resources of arable land there are estimated to occupy a substantial portion of its total territory.

In 2015, during the first Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok, the Russian Ministry for the Development of the Far East and Chinese National Development and Reform Commission signed a memorandum to set up the Russian-Chinese Fund for Agro-Industrial Development.

During the second Eastern Economic Forum in 2016, companies participating in the fund signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of plants to process meat, soybeans and wheat in the Far East region.

The creation of the fund is mutually beneficial for both China and Russia, as Russian enterprises will gain access to foreign markets, while China will benefit from getting access to safe products.

Since weak infrastructure has long hindered the development of the Far East region, improving the infrastructure will stimulate trade and economic exchanges between China and Russia.

Moscow and Beijing have signed agreements to build two bridges over the Amur (Heilongjiang) River, providing even more transit between the two sides, and stimulating not only bilateral trade and economic exchanges, but those across the Eurasian continent as a whole.

The favorable trend of development in the Russian Far East has made numerous Chinese businessmen and companies become increasingly interested in investing in the region.

The Bank of China has opened a branch in Vladivostok. Hua Qiang, representative of the bank in the city, told Xinhua that in the past two years, Chinese businessmen and enterprises that opened accounts in the branch rose by over 1,000, which implies a significant investment from Chinese investors. Endi