A joint Russia-China investment body is considering 70 projects totaling $112 billion, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has announced after an intergovernmental commission meeting in Beijing.
On Tuesday, delegations from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and a private equity fund established by the RDIF and China Investment Corporation (CIC) called Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) joined the 6th meeting of the Intergovernmental Russian-Chinese Commission for Investment. Apart from the multi-billion dollar cross-border projects, the two sides discussed investment, trade and economic cooperation.
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At the same time Russia’s sovereign wealth fund together with the RCIF and the investment fund for Guangdong province, Guangdong Utrust Investment Holdings, agreed on key terms to set up $1 billion fund. The body, dubbed the Russian-Chinese Greater Bay Area Fund, is aimed at strengthening mutual trade and economic ties between companies from the two states. It will also promote Russian business in Guangdong, the Chinese province that accounts for the biggest share of the country’s GDP, and encouraging local companies to enter the Russian market.
“This fund creates great opportunities for Russian companies,” Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said. “Cooperation between RDIF, RCIF and Guangdong Utrust is developing steadily, and I am confident that we are moving in the right direction towards large-scale joint projects that will serve to further strengthen the partnership between Russia and China.”
China is Russia’s largest trade partner, with the volume of trade exceeding $100 billion in 2018 and expected to double in five years. In recent months, Beijing and Moscow have also been working to boost mutual trade in their national currencies, the ruble and the yuan, as they move to lessen dependence on the US dollar.
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