Russian rail giant to invest US$1b in China
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-24 14:24

"The current volume of cargo shipped between Russia and China is 30 million tons a year. By 2010, we plan to double that number," Gennady Fadeyev, the president of Russian Railways, or RZD, told reporters after meeting with Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun.

Fadeyev said RZD would spend 14 billion rubles ($480 million) modernizing a 365-kilometer stretch of track that runs from Karymskaya Station near the Siberian city of Chita to Zabaikalsk on the Chinese border by 2008. Another 16 billion rubles will be spent laying a second, parallel, track, the company said.

Fadeyev and Liu are scheduled to sign a detailed agreement next month requiring both sides to vastly enhance their rail capacity by 2010, Fadeyev said.

Liu and several other senior Chinese officials, led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks aimed at increasing trade. Wen is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on Friday to discuss his country's most pressing issue -- securing a steady supply of oil to fuel its booming economy.

Bilateral trade will likely reach $20 billion this year, up from just $10.67 billion in 2001, Deputy Prime Minister Wu Yi said Wednesday.

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