He said that in 2004 the economic relations between Russia and China reached their peak in the past few years: the trade turnover topped $20 billion.
"However, the potential has not yet been exhausted, and our task today is to increase it to $60 billion. But if we continue to cooperate by using traditional methods, that is, simply by trading (exports - imports), we shall not reach this figure. We should go over to a new stage in cooperation, particularly to joint long-term projects and to investment cooperation," Titov said.
Only when hundreds and thousands of direct contacts appear between the companies of the two countries will it be possible to speak about a cardinal change in the economic contacts between Russia and China, he said.
Titov said that the main task of the Russian-Chinese Business Council was to stimulate and contribute to the development of joint Russian-Chinese projects. "At present, we are considering more than 80 projects; sixty of them are at a regional level," Titov said. According to him, these projects include energy production, the development of the transport infrastructure, wood-processing and the organization of Russian-Chinese assembly enterprises in the automobile and transport machine-building in Russia.
The head of the Russian-Chinese Business Council also said that mutual contacts and the work in the sphere of professional education was one of the most important spheres. "Today we have a great shortage of skilled specialists precisely in the Russian-Chinese economic relations who would perfectly know the Chinese and Russian languages. The project of organizing a master's programme on Russian-Chinese economic relation at the Moscow Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) has greatly interested us," Titov said.
Among the main problems he named the insufficient speed in implementing joint projects, both on the part of Russia and China. Titov supported the idea, proposed by the Chinese side, of founding a Russian-Chinese Investors' Club.
He also spoke about the insufficient legislative basis for joint work. "We have earnestly asked the governments of our countries to speed up the work for signing the treaty on mutual protection of capital investments," Titov underscored.
