The 3rd session of the China-Russia Financial Cooperation Forum was held in Moscow from Aug 29 and Aug 30. Moe than 200 experts and scholars from central banks, finance supervision bodies, commercial banks and securities and insurance companies from the two countries attended the forum.

A long-term mechanism of financial exchange should be formed, and the China-Russia Financial Cooperation Forum should be made a platform on which the two countries can study financial cooperation strategy and discuss ways of cooperation, said Wu Xiaoling, deputy governor of PBOC in her address at the opening ceremony.

Insufficient knowledge of the other country's economic and legal environment is the biggest difficult for financial cooperation between China and Russia, Wu told reporter of Xinhua News Agency. She proposed Chinese Monetary Society and Association of Russian Banks collect the latest financial laws and regulations, and provide finance supervision bodies and commercial finance institutes with service information.

With the rapid growth of trade volume between China and Russia, the financial cooperation, which is now in the starting phase, has become an inevitable trend. In addition, there are huge potentials in investment cooperation because the two economies can supplement each other. Such cooperation demands support from finance institutes too. At present, there are two cooperative platforms between China and Russia in the finance area: one is the bank cooperation committee under the mechanism of regular meeting between Chinese and Russian premiers, which is responsible for technical coordination and operation between banks; the other is China-Russia Financial Cooperation Forum.

Co-sponsored by the Chinese Monetary Society and Association of Russian Banks, the China-Russia Financial Cooperation Forum is an important event to boost financial exchange and cooperation

The forum aims at providing a platform on which finance circles in China and Russia can exchange experience and fruits regarding reform, and discuss common problems that have occurred in economic development and find solutions. The previous two sessions of the forum was held in Moscow in 2001 and in Beijing in 2003.

By People's Daily Online