Mikhail Demin
The modern global economic interaction system is in a stage of rapid transformation. In this context, the economic cooperation between Russia and China shows a trend of rapid growth in quantity and quality. In addition to further strengthening joint investment in high-tech projects, metallurgical projects, transportation, and airport infrastructure, Russia and China are exploring new ways of bank interaction, with great potential for collaboration in project financing, syndicated loans, export insurance, and reinsurance.
The trade volume between Russia and China is growing at a record speed. The interest of enterprises from both countries in conducting joint investment projects is increasing day by day. The cooperation between Russian and Chinese financial institutions, including development organizations, is also constantly strengthening. The use of domestic currency in financial settlements between companies is becoming increasingly common.
The expansion of trade, economic, and investment cooperation is based on the unprecedented interaction between Russia and China.   In May, Russian Prime Minister Mishusky and a delegation from the Russian business community, including the Chairman of the Russian Development Group, Shuvalov, participated in the China Russia Business Forum held in Shanghai.
China is an important foreign trade partner of Russia and has always been the market with the largest export volume of Russian products. From 2018 to 2022, the average annual growth rate of Russia's exports to China was 24%. In 2022, the bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached a record high of $190 billion and is expected to exceed $200 billion by 2023. At present, the main areas of cooperation between China and Russia include optimizing trade structure, developing investment cooperation, deepening the interaction between digital economy and sustainable development, developing interconnected logistics systems, improving financial cooperation levels, strengthening partnerships in energy, technology, and innovation fields, and achieving higher quality industrial cooperation.
The long-term cooperation goals proposed by the heads of state of Russia and China are organically combined with the tasks set by President Putin and the Russian government for the Russian National Development Group. The Russian State Development Group is a national development company aimed at contributing to Russia's long-term development and, together with the Russian Commercial Bank, providing funding for large-scale projects dedicated to developing infrastructure, industry, enhancing technological potential, and improving people's quality of life. The Russian Development Group has always been the largest partner of Chinese financial organizations in Russia. In the past 15 years, our credit transaction cooperation with Bank of China has exceeded the equivalent of 100 billion RMB. We have established close cooperative relationships with development institutions and commercial banks.
Specifically, we are currently developing and implementing 15 large-scale investment projects with the participation of our Chinese partners. This includes natural gas chemical complex construction projects, petrochemical product production projects, mining and processing plant construction projects, as well as several projects in the field of mechanical engineering. The Russian National Development Group has invested in six projects, with a total approved funding of over 3 trillion rubles (approximately 28 billion US dollars). We highly appreciate the positive and consistent stance of our Chinese partners in developing mutually beneficial technological and industrial cooperation.
Our interaction with Chinese partners is not only bilateral, but also multilateral. These include the SCO banking consortium, the BRICS banking cooperation mechanism, the combination of the "the Belt and Road" initiative and the Eurasian integration project, and the formation of the Greater Eurasian Partnership.
Looking towards the future, we link the prospects of further strengthening cooperation with China with joint investment in high-tech, metallurgy, wood processing, transportation infrastructure (including developing the potential of the North Sea route), airport infrastructure, and various projects to develop Far Eastern cities within the framework of the established overall plan. Moreover, the Russian State Development Group is also the national methodology center in the field of green finance. We are willing to establish an information exchange system to exchange best practices for organizing such financing and implementing low-carbon development projects.
There is reason to believe that our joint funding for projects that have reached consensus and the search for new bilateral cooperation projects will create new job opportunities and help improve the quality of life of the people of Russia and China. The Russian Development Group will continue to actively participate in this work. (The author is the Chief Executive Manager of the Russian National Development Group) ▲