BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The eighth China-Russia Expo is set to take place from May 16 to 21 in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced on Monday.
The event is part of the celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia this year.
It will feature a significant lineup of Russian enterprises organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. Additionally, 16 Russian federal entities will present their businesses at the event, Chinese commerce ministry official Liu Xuesong said at a news conference.
The expo will also serve as a platform to highlight Russia's socio-economic development, investment opportunities, cooperative projects, quality products and distinctive cultural elements. It aims to foster extensive discussions and negotiations between the two countries in various sectors.
In recent years, the volume of trade between China and Russia has been expanding, and commodity structure optimization is ongoing. In 2023, bilateral trade between the two nations reached 240.1 billion U.S. dollars, achieving an established trade target of 200 billion U.S. dollars ahead of schedule.
The first quarter of 2024 saw that positive trend continue, with bilateral trade amounting to 56.68 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 5.2 percent.
The upcoming expo is expected to attract over 5,000 professional buyers from more than 120 delegations representing 44 countries and regions.
Its exhibition area will span 388,000 square meters, showcasing more than 5,000 products in over 20 major categories from 10 sectors.
This year's event will see Zhejiang act as its Chinese guest province of honor, Moscow as its Russian guest city of honor, and Harbin as its thematic host city.
The host city of the China-Russia Expo alternates between the two countries. Since its inception in 2014, the expo has attracted more than 7,200 Chinese and Russian enterprises, as well as over 1.05 million merchants, facilitating contracts totaling 446.8 billion yuan (about 63 billion U.S. dollars) in value. ■
