Russia set to bolster industrial ties with China – PM

Russia is committed to bringing its agreements on industrial cooperation with China to fruition, while dealing with all the challenges it faces, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said this week.

“The main areas of joint work were determined by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. And all the agreements reached by the two leaders must be brought to concrete results. We have every opportunity to fulfill this,” he said on Monday, addressing Russia’s industrial fair (INNOPROM).

Mishustin noted that the country’s industrial output surged by 7% over the past four years, while the manufacturing index in the processing industry jumped by 12.8% year-on-year in May.

Over 160 Chinese companies from 12 provinces are taking part in the Russia-China Expo, which kicked off in Ekaterinburg on Monday as part of the INNOPROM exhibition. 

Sverdlovsk Region Governor Evgeny Kuyvashev recently said that his region is interested in cooperating with China in areas such as microelectronics and the machine tool industry, particularly in exports of machine tools and their joint manufacturing. 

Bilateral cooperation between Russia and China has been growing at an unprecedented pace over the past year and is on course to surpass the $200 billion target this year. In 2022, trade turnover hit a historic high of $190.3 billion in annual terms and continues to accelerate.

Exports and imports have surged at a double-digit pace since the beginning of the year. According to customs data, bilateral trade soared to $93.8 billion in January-May, marking a 40.7% increase compared with a year ago.

Economic ties have been bolstered by the mutual decision to conduct the majority of transactions in the nations’ own currencies instead of the US dollar.

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