BEIJING, September 6 (Itar-Tass) —— China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Russia’s Moscow region agreed to step up trade and economic cooperation.
The related agreement was signed at the first international exhibition China-Eurasia EXPO, which was held in the administrative centre of the autonomous region, Urumqi, last week.
“The high level of complementarity of the Russian and Chinese economies can guarantee a colossal potential for the development of fruitful commercial relations between the two countries,” the deputy chairman of the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region’s Commercial Department told reporters, pointing to the country’s western territory of Xinjiang’s active role in the stepping up of the contacts of the kind.
“The Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region supplies construction materials, cars and equipment, and light industry’s goods to Moscow’s market,” she reaffirmed, adding, “Simultaneously, Russia strengthens foreign trade and investment cooperation with Xinjiang.”
“China is a big trade partner of the Moscow Region,” Regional Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Boris Prokonov said.
In 2010, the Moscow region’s trade with China slightly reached 2.72 billion U.S. dollars. In the first half of the year, the index grew by 152 percent, he said.
“We hope for further development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the Moscow region and China in the spheres of high, advanced and energy-saving technologies, as well as modern transport, IT and communications,” he said.
China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million square kilometres. The autonomous region borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China’s largest natural gas-producing region.