China, Russia sign multi-billion-dollar deals

Chinese and Russian companies signed 13 deals Wednesday, AFP reported.

"This morning our entrepreneurs signed 13 contracts worth $8.6 billion," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during their talks at the Gorky residence outside Moscow, the report said.

In total, 19 contracts were signed during his visit, including those inked following Wen's meeting Tuesday with Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, according to AFP.

Although neither Wen nor Medvedev elaborated on the nature of those contracts, several Russian companies announced deals with their Chinese counterparts, AFP reported.

Russia's United Company Rusal, the world's largest aluminum producer, said it had agreed to acquire a 33 percent stake in Shenzhen North Investments, a subsidiary of Norinco, and also to create a joint venture with Norinco to produce aluminum alloys, according to AFP.

Russian investment bank Metropol signed an agreement with Metallurgical Corporation of China to build a mining and processing complex in eastern Siberia, AFP quoted Metropol spokesman Roman Chernigovtsev as saying.

The construction cost of the plant is estimated at $1.33 billion, and the company has yet to raise that amount, he added.

Also Wednesday, Russia's biggest lender, Sberbank and Export-Import Bank of China, agreed to open a $2 billion credit line to finance joint projects, AFP said.

Regarding the two governments' differences on gas pricing, Igor Sechin, a Russian deputy prime minister, said Tuesday that the two sides may be able to discuss concrete parameters for the issue by next summer, according to Reuters.

Before meeting Medvedev, Wen attended a China-Russia business summit in Moscow and outlined a four-point proposal suggesting a road map to promote bilateral cooperation, Xinhua reported.

Wen called on the two sides to further open their markets to each other, to intensify their collaboration on technology and innovation and to improve the level of cooperation in their border areas.

He said Beijing welcomes more Russian companies to create business in China and promised that Beijing will create favorable conditions to boost China-Russia investment projects.

Wen also met with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin Wednesday, voicing support for Moscow's effort to regulate the two-way trade order and the "gray clearance."

"Gray customs clearance" involves intermediaries handling customs clearance for bulk commodities loaded onto planes or trucks.

Agencies