A delegation of the People's Republic of China visited Smolensk region

The delegation of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the Russian Federation visited Smolensk region. During the visit, the representatives of the PRC and the Administration of the region had a meeting, at which the parties discussed issues of bilateral cooperation in the investment, agro-industrial, cultural and other spheres.

As it was noted at the meeting, Smolensk region is actively developing relations with China. At the end of 2017, the total foreign trade turnover of the region with the eastern partner amounted to 65.4 million US dollars, which is 10.3% more than in 2016. A year earlier, the share of exports the structure of foreign trade turnover with China was 13.2%, the share of imports was 86.8%. At the same time, in terms of exports to China, our region ranks 14th among all the subjects of the Federation. In terms of imports to Smolensk region, in 2017 the PRC ranked third among all the importing countries.

While discussing the cooperation, it was pointed out that last year, on the instructions of Governor Alexey Ostrovskiy, the Export Support Center was set up in the region. It supports export-oriented small and medium-sized businesses and facilitates increasing the volume of product export by the companies of the region.

In particular, the representatives of the Administration of the region touched upon the potential collaboration in the machine-building industry. Thus, the energy potential of Smolensk region makes it possible to place energy-intensive production on its territory. In addition, the cost of electricity in the region is, on average, 4 times cheaper, the cost of gas is more than 11 times cheaper than in European countries. Therefore, the region is ready to carry out large industrial projects and suggests using production sites provided with all necessary engineering infrastructure.

For example, “Polymix”, a Smolensk company, has a special target offer for cooperation with Chinese companies in production of gearboxes. Currently, the Company purchases synchronizers from the Chinese corporation FAW and is ready to localize its plant for joint production of this equipment on its territory.

Similar solutions were also discussed regarding the sphere of agriculture and machinery production.