MOSCOW: Visiting President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin expressed a strong desire yesterday to upgrade economic and trade partnership between their countries.

At the opening ceremony of the China National Exhibition, Hu said the expo will give the two neighbors a chance to find new ways to boost their economic and trade ties.

"When the two countries try to expand their business, they should enrich the contents of their cooperation to advance the strategic partnership," Hu said.

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The four-day exhibition on China's achievements after its opening-up is the largest of its kind organized by the country overseas.

The two presidents went around the exhibition, which is spread over more than 20,000 square meters, and showcases about 15,000 products from 30 industries such as energy, machinery, automobile and home appliances.

Putin said companies of the two countries should focus not only on increasing the trade volume, but also on improving the quality of their cooperation.

Bilateral trade grew at more than 30 percent a year from 1999 to 2005. Last year, it rose 14.7 percent to reach $33.4 billion. Russia is now China's eighth largest trade partner, while China is its northern neighbor's fourth largest.

Some problems, however, are still creating an obstacle in the two countries' goal of achieving a bilateral trade volume of $60-80 billion by 2010.

Structural discrepancy in trade has often been cited as a major problem.

Russia mainly sells raw materials and fuel to China, with oil and petrochemicals making up 54 percent of its exports. It supplies timber in large volumes, too. On the other hand, China's main supplies to Russia are consumer goods.

"Improving the trade structure is on our agenda," Konstantin Vnukov, director of the Asian department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, was quoted by Xinhua as having said.

Official statistics show the turnover in China-Russia machinery and electrical products trade was $5.85 billion last year, with the exports from Russia being worth only $247 million.

Experts said that since China is now a member of the World Trade Organization and Russia expected to join it soon, the business imbalance would be set right to improve the trade and investment environment.

Before flying to the city of Kazan yesterday to continue his three-day state visit, Hu met Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Chairman of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) Boris Gryzlov separately.

(China Daily 03/28/2007 page2)