BEIJING, May 19 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Monday called for an increase of Chinese investment in the Russian capital.
“The overwhelming majority of foreign investments to Russia are coming from European countries. I think this is not right,” Sobyanin said Monday during a meeting with Chinese Communist Party Chief and former Mayor of Beijing Guo Jinlong.
“The volume of investments should be balanced from various parts of the world, in particular China,” the Moscow mayor said.
Sobyanin said that Moscow and Beijing had signed a number of agreements that mark a new stage of the bilateral cooperation between the two cities.
“I am sure that our meeting today and the signing of the program will propel cooperation between our cities to a new level,” he said.
According to Sobyanin, the two sides signed a cooperation program between the Moscow government and Beijing people’s government for 2014-2016. The parties also agreed to a memorandum on cooperation between the Scientific-Research and Design Institute of the General Plan of Moscow and Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, as well as an agreement on the development of relations between the Moscow chamber of commerce and industry and the Beijing department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
During an earlier meeting with Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun prior to the signing of the documents, Sobyanin said that Moscow and Beijing shared a centuries-long history of cooperation. According to Sobyanin, Moscow accounts for 30 percent of Chinese-Russia trade turnover, and tourist flow from China to Moscow stands at about 40 percent annually.
