Member of the PRC Wu Yi makes an inspection tour of Chinese regions bordering on Russia

Co-chairwoman of the Chinese-Russian inter-governmental commission for preparing the meeting between the Russian and Chinese heads of government, member of the PRC State Council Wu Yi made an inspection tour of the Chinese regions which border on Russia. As the official Chinese sources reported, in Manchuria Wu Yi visited the Chinese-Russian free trade zone and motor and railway check-points. While staying in Manchuria, she spoke of the necessity to expand across-border trade and to perfect the work of the check-points. This, according to her, meets the interests of development of the national regions of the People's Republic of China.

Situated opposite the Russian city of Zabaikalsk, Manchuria is an administrative part of the Autonomous District of Inner Mongolia. In the total amount of export and import operation in Inner Mongolia, which are conducted mainly with Russian regions, the across-border trade accounts for more than a half of the district's foreign trade.

In this connection, Wu Yi underscored that the development of across-border trade played an important role in "raising the living standards of the people and in protecting the stability in this region." In her opinion, it is necessary to increase the amount of exports, to attract investments from the eastern part of China and to more actively gain a foothold on the Russian market. At the same time she called for introducing order in across-border trade and to raise the quality of exported commodities.