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Updated: 2007-06-28 11:20

The first bridge across the Heilong River, which borders China and Russia, is due for completion by 2010, a Russian government official said.

Attending this year's China Harbin International Fair for Trade and Economic Cooperation (Harbin Fair), Valery Solomonovich Gurevich, vice-chairman of Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region government, said that his country and China will likely start the construction of the first railway bridge over the Heilong River (called Amur in Russia) at the end of this year.

The bridge will link Nizhneleninskoye in the Jewish Autonomous Region with Tongjiang in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The building of the 2,197-m long bridge will involve an estimated investment of nearly 6 billion rubles ($230 million), and will likely be finished by the end of 2010, said Gurevich.

Once completed, the bridge will greatly enhance the cargo handling capacity of both countries.

Gurevich said that the proposal to construct a bridge across the river was actually made by Russia, in view of growing cargo transportation demands.

Though the bridge is yet to be endorsed by both nations, the Russian official was upbeat about its future.

"The bridge, in the bold estimate, will be finished in three years," Gurevich said.

He added that sound economic ties with Heilongjiang Province have constituted one of the "decisive factors" in the economic development of the Jewish Autonomous Region.

China and Russia have reached a consensus on China's import of iron ore from the region and the planned bridge will be conducive to further exploration of mineral resources in these areas.

As a temporary measure, the two sides are planning to build a floating bridge to overcome the adverse conditions faced when the river begins to freeze over but is not firm enough to run trucks on.

Cargo transportation between the two banks of the river is carried out by ferry in summer and by truck when the ice becomes solid enough in winter.

The construction of a floating bridge will make the movement of trucks possible even when the ice is not so firm. The floating bridge will consist of 35 buoying tanks linked together, and will be finished in November.

It has become imperative to relieve the transportation bottleneck between the two sides, in view of soaring Sino-Russian trade.

Addressing this year's fair, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said that bilateral trade volume is expected to exceed $40 billion this year.

The already strong political ties between the two countries and the rapidly developing economic and trade exchanges are expected to hit a new high this year, said Tang.

Trade between the two countries developed briskly during the past decade, with volumes soaring from $6.83 billion in 1996 to $33.4 billion in 2006.

The figure for the first four months of this year has already reached $12.5 billion, Tang pointed out.

"It is estimated that the figure will exceed 40 billion this year," he told about 300 representatives from both countries at the opening ceremony of the fair's Russia Business Day.

At present, China's direct investment in Russia is worth $940 million while Russia's direct investment in China totals $610 million, he added.

China is the fourth largest trade partner of Russia while Russia is the nation's eighth largest trade partner, and both have set a strategic goal to realize a bilateral trade volume of $60 to 80 billion by 2010.

The two countries have launched a series of new cooperation programs in the fields of energy, aviation and construction, Tang further said. The State Councilor said that opportunities abound as both countries are developing very fast due to a line of effective revitalization plans.

"Russia is mapping out a plan for the development of its Far East region, and China is actively pushing forward the revitalization of its Northeast," he said.

Tang also noted that the two countries should work harder to adjust the current simple trade structure in order to upgrade their economic and technological cooperation.

Light industrial products like textiles, clothes, shoes and home appliances account for the majority of Chinese exports to Russia, while Russia's export to China mainly focuses on crude materials such as crude oil, logs and steel.

Tang said that the countries should strengthen cooperation in high-tech fields by importing more electronic products.

Sergey Razov, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in China, said: "The strategic relationship between China and Russia is reaching an unprecedented level and economic and trade exchange is becoming more and more mature, with the fields of cooperation expanding very fast."

Razov said the fair is not only a platform for businesses from both countries to get together, but also a stage for investment and production cooperation.

The influence of the fair is increasing as more and more representatives from the European areas of Russia join in.

Liu Xueliang, vice governor of Heilongjiang Province, said that much potential remains to be explored in Sino-Russian trade.

"The current trade volume still lags far behind and fails to match with the economic and technological standard of both countries," Liu said.

At present, bilateral trade volume is only about one-sixth of that between China and the United States and one-fourth of that between China and the Republic of Korea, he noted.

Liu said that one of the most important reasons for this is the lack of large-scale projects between the two countries.