Chinese Ambassador to Russia: There are still some constraints in Sino Russian economic and trade cooperation, among which logistics issues are more prominent

According to the website of the Chinese Embassy in Russia, on December 22, Ambassador Zhang Hanhui received a year-end written interview from the "Russia Today" international news agency on issues such as China Russia relations. The interview was published in both Chinese and Russian languages on the Sputnik News Agency and the Russian news agency of the news agency. Part of the content is as follows:

Q: How is the trade dynamics between Russia and China in 2022? How can diplomats solve existing logistics problems?

Answer: In 2022, China Russia economic and trade cooperation overcame many unfavorable factors, including the signing of the "Road Map for High Quality Development of China Russia Goods and Services Trade" in February, which provided a path plan for achieving the trade goals of the two countries. With the joint efforts of both sides, bilateral trade has maintained a strong growth momentum and reached a new historical high. According to Chinese customs statistics, the bilateral trade volume of goods from January to November this year reached 172.41 billion US dollars, taking a solid step towards the trade target of 200 billion US dollars set by the two heads of state. Among them, China's exports to Russia reached 67.34 billion US dollars, an increase of 13.4%; China imported $105.07 billion from Russia, an increase of 47.5%. While consolidating the trade of traditional commodities such as oil and gas and minerals, both sides are continuously expanding the scale of trade in agricultural products, chemicals, and mechanical and electrical products. Among them, the total amount of agricultural product trade between China and Russia from January to October this year reached 6.64 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 37.1%. New growth points in bilateral trade such as cross-border e-commerce, digital trade, transportation services, and healthcare have injected new momentum into cooperation.

At the same time, there are still some constraining factors in Sino Russian economic and trade cooperation, among which logistics issues are more prominent. The reasons for this problem are quite complex. One is the impact of epidemic factors on the passage of land ports between the two countries; Secondly, there is only one Trans Siberian railway within Russia that connects to the Far East, with limited transportation capacity; Thirdly, the throughput capacity of Russian Far Eastern ports has not been fully utilized; The fourth is that the accounting and settlement system between China and Russia has not yet been established; The fifth issue is that the offline economic and trade groups of both sides have not fully recovered due to the epidemic.

In order to alleviate the logistics tension between the two countries, relevant regulatory departments and logistics transportation enterprises in China and Russia have continued to take active measures, such as the opening of the Heihe Highway Bridge and the Tongjiang Railway Bridge, the resumption of regular passenger flights between China and Russia to 5 per week, and the smooth signing of the "Certified Operator" (AEO) mutual recognition agreement between the two countries, continuously improving the level of customs facilitation. The next step is to fundamentally solve the logistics problems between the two countries. Firstly, we need to continue to improve the cross-border infrastructure construction in Inner Mongolia, China, and the Outer Baikal Border Region of Russia, and enhance the transportation capacity and connectivity between the two countries; The second is to cooperate in developing the transportation of goods passing through Kazakhstan, fully tapping and utilizing the transportation potential of the China Europe freight train; The third is to resume maritime transportation between China and Russia as soon as possible and vigorously develop maritime routes. The Chinese Embassy in Russia will continue to actively coordinate and promote the competent departments and logistics transportation enterprises of the two countries to move towards each other, fully assist in solving the problems that arise in the transportation of goods, and promote the smooth flow of logistics channels between the two countries.