Visitors to the ChinaRussia Expo in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, check goods from Russia in June last year. The province has close trade ties with Russia, which it borders on. WANG JIANWEI / XINHUA
Coordination of Belt and Road, Eurasian Economic Union boosts development outlook for both.
At the Europlastic factory in Vladivostok, the largest city in the Russian Far East, local workers use Italian-built machinery to make plastic bottle caps out of raw materials imported from China.
It is a dynamic that largely reflects the current international business scene in Russia.
The name "Europlastic" highlights an ambition cherished by many Russian enterprises: to thrive in the European market. Yet the company has almost no business in Europe, with overall trade having plummeted since the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia in the wake of the 2014 Ukraine crisis.
At the same time, the fact that the manufacturing plant uses only raw materials from China highlights the need for Chinese imports in Russia's light industry sector.
The situation has created an opportunity for China to foster greater economic cooperation with its large neighbor, especially through the Belt and Road Initiative. The strategy, which revolves around the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aims to improve connectivity through trade and infrastructure projects.
In May, President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed a joint declaration to coordinate development of the Chinese initiative and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, a bloc established in 2015 that comprises Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.
During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June, Putin told Chinese media that the Belt and Road was an interesting strategy that had come at a good time, and all five EEU members had agreed to cooperate under the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt.
The positive signals from Moscow took some experts by surprise, since the projects were originally seen as potential competitors.
To support the initiative, China established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, pledging $100 billion, and the $40 billion Silk Road Fund to provide low-interest, long-term loans for development projects.
"Regional connectivity is the main objective," Kamel Mellahi, a professor of strategic management at Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom, said of the Belt and Road Initiative. "There's little doubt it's a win-win project for all the countries involved."
Russia agrees. Now, more government officials and entrepreneurs are eager to participate in the Chinese strategy.
