Russia to decide on financing for construction of bridge to China within 10 days - minister

KHABAROVSK, August 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Far East Development Fund will take a decision within 10 days on financing the construction of a cross-border bridge to northeast China, Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev said on Thursday. The construction of the first railway bridge across the Amur River between the settlement of Nizhneleninskoye in the Jewish Autonomous Area and Tongjiang in northeast China began in February 2014. Russia intends to use the bridge to export iron ore, coal, mineral fertilizer, timber and other products to China. "The Far East Development Fund is to take a decision within a ten-day period at its council’s meeting on financing of the bridge construction in the Jewish Autonomous Area. We do not issue commands to the Fund. It takes decisions on its own but we’re working with it to comply with the deadlines," Trutnev said. "The government commission has selected the project of the bridge construction as a top-priority financing task for the Fund. Money has been allocated and is available. The issue of commencing the construction is now technical as it is necessary to harmonize the contractors’ efforts to avoid a situation where China would be building the bridge to one place and we would be constructing it to the other," the presidential Far Eastern envoy said. "The commencement dates will fully depend on builders," Trutnev said. According to the Russian government’s commission, the Far East Development Fund will finance 25 percent of the bridge construction project while 75 percent will be financed by the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The Russian part of the project is estimated at $155.6 million. Read more