Chinese and Russian enterprises signed 21 agreements and contracts worth US$4.3 billion after the opening ceremony of China's national exhibition in Moscow Tuesday.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref took part in the signing ceremony.

Among those agreements and contracts, 17 trade deals valued at about US$3.7 billion were signed. These include exports of Chinese cars, home appliances and farm products to Russia, as well as imports of Russian machine tools and silicic steel plates to China. Four economic cooperation projects worth US$586 million in timber processing, shipbuilding and mining were also inked.

Double-digit growth has been registered in two-way trade for the past eight years. Trade volume hit a record US$33.4 billion in 2006, up 15 percent from the previous year, according to Chinese Commerce Ministry figures.

The two countries have decided to raise the volume of bilateral trade to US$60-80 billion by 2010, and the investment of China in Russia to US$12 billion by 2020.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2007)