Russia’s Volga Federal District eyes new projects with China - deputy envoy

CHANGSHA /China/, July 16. /TASS/. Russia’s Volga Federal District eyes an opportunity of launching new various projects with China’s regions, Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian President to the Volga Federal District Oleg Mashkovtsev said in an interview with TASS. Mashkovtsev attended the opening ceremony of the Sixth Russian-Chinese Youth Forum ‘Volga-Yangtze’ held in the city of Changsha in central China’s Hunan province on Tuesday. "We are pondering over new projects. It was an initiative of the Chinese side. However, we already have a quite high level of cooperation, so we need not to lose the potential we have built up. If we speak about trade and economic relations, there are projects mostly implemented in Russia. They are investment projects of China’s major companies," he said adding they include agricultural and industrial projects along with smaller-scale projects aimed at setting up joint ventures. The deputy envoy pointed out that Chinese partners showed interest in diverse fields of cooperation. "We are working now on about one hundred projects in all fields and sectors," he said adding that the priority list included 13 projects undergoing implementation. "The projects are in the agricultural sector, in the production of foodstuffs. They involve the production of building products, machinery, metallurgical production, timber processing and logistics," he said. Mashkovtsev told the TASS correspondent that a cement plant is under construction in Bashkortostan, a tool steel plant is under construction in Mari El, industrial parks are being set up in Chuvashia and the Penza region, while a timber-processing project has been launched in the Perm region. All those areas are part of the Volga Federal District. Touching upon the region’s future cooperation with China, Mashkovtsev noted that humanitarian exchanges form their major part. "Obviously, our youth forums help start a friendship between our young people. Naturally, as the youth is our future, we will be doing our best to enhance this potential. We believe it to be a top priority, despite the fact that we will be certainly putting more effort in trade and the economy." Speaking about the Volga Federal District’s trade with China, the deputy envoy said that trade had amounted to 3% of Russia’s trade with China, which climbed to $108 billion in 2018. Volga-Yangtze project and youth forum The Russian presidential envoy recalled that 14 agreements between the District’s regions and China’s provinces were signed at the third meeting of the Volga-Yangtze Inter-regional Cooperation Council held in Cheboksary this May. "It is a well-established, 6.5-year-long relationship. Naturally, nobody does not even think to block this cooperation as it is deepening further and further," he noted. The Volga-Yangtze project was launched by the Russian and Chinese leaders in 2013 with the aim to forge ties between the two countries’ regions. It involves cooperation in various fields between the regions of the Russian Volga Federal District and China’s provinces located in the upper and middle streams of the Yangtze River flow. The first meeting of the Volga-Yangtze Inter-regional Cooperation Council took place in Ulyanovsk in 2016. The project is overseen by Russian Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative to the Volga Federal District Igor Komarov and Wang Yong, a member of China’s State Council. Russian-Chinese youth forums have become an inseparable part of the Volga-Yangtze project. "As for the youth forum we attended today, the initiative was put forward by the Russian side. In 2014, we invited 150 Chinese students to come to our forum iVolga, which is traditionally held in the Samara region," he said. "Afterwards, we reached an agreement to hold these forums annually alternatively in China or in Russia," he said. The current youth forum will run until July 25. The Russian delegation has brought together more than 130 students from the Volga Federal District’s universities. At the forum venue, 160 Chinese students from the upper and middle courses of the Yangtze River welcomed them. Read more