China and Russia on Sunday pledged efforts in a joint communique to deepen economic cooperation and cultural exchanges.

The document, signed upon the end of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to Russia, said bilateral trade has gained momentum in recent years, citing a record trade volume of 21.23 billion US dollars in 2004 and a growth rate of more than 20 percent this year.

The two sides pledged efforts in exploiting the great potential in bilateral economic cooperation, optimizing trade structure and boosting the trade of machinery and electronic products. They also set a goal of annual bilateral trade of 60-80 billion US dollars by 2010.

The two sides are satisfied with the momentum of cooperation in investment, said the communique. Both had highly positive comments on the second Sino-Russian conference on investment promotion in June in St. Petersburg, at which agreements on a series of cooperation programs were reached. The two sides agreed that they will continue to hold conferences on investment promotion to expand the scale and improve the level of investment cooperation, said the document.

The two sides will take active measures within the frameworks of their law to create good environment and necessary conditions for the implementation of the cooperation programs so that China's investment could reach 12 billion US dollars by 2020, a goal set by the two countries.

They also agreed to work out an accord on the encouragement and protection of mutual investment as soon as possible, the communique said.

The two sides vowed to further push forward regional cooperation and encourage border areas of the two countries to conduct closer cooperation.

The success of the 16th Harbin Economy and Trade Consultation Meeting will contribute to the promotion of cooperation of business circles from the two countries in implementing Russia's development strategies for East Siberia and Far East and China's plan to revitalize its traditional industrial bases in northeast China, said the communique.

The two countries will further implement the cooperation projects in the fields of investment, science and technology, transportation, space, civil aviation, telecommunication and information technology, the peaceful use of nuclear energy and banking.

The two sides agreed that it is of great importance to enforce bilateral cooperation in the energy field. They decided to further implement the cooperation projects in the fields of oil and natural gas, including the construction of an oil pipeline and joint exploitation of oil fields in both countries.

The cooperation agreements on oil, natural gas and electric power signed at the summit of Hu and Russian President Vladimir Putin marked a new step in energy cooperation between the two countries, the communique said.

Both sides stressed they would widen cooperation in people- related areas and implement step by step the agreed activities in culture, education, health, sports and tourism.

The two sides emphasized that the scheduled "Russia Year" in China in 2006 and "China Year" in Russia in 2007 are both significant events in bilateral relations.

The two sides would carefully carry out projects for the events, through which new vigor could be injected into bilateral relations in politics, economy, science and culture, the communique said.

Source: Xinhua