Sino-Russian Energy Cooperation Benefits Both SidesThere are great prospects for energy cooperation between China and Russia, said experts attending the International Symposium on Economic Cooperation and Social Development in Northeast Asia.The demand for energy is growing rapidly in China as a result of fast economic development, Wang Fushi, a research fellow with the Liaoning Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said at the symposium, which closed Thursday in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province. According to official statistics, China imported 70 million tons of crude oil from Russia last year, up 92 percent over the figure of the previous year. Alexander Nekrasov, deputy head of the Research Institute of the National Economic Forecast under the Russian Academy of Science, said, China's enormous demand for oil provides a big market for Russia, which possesses 13 percent of the total oil reserves and 45 percent of the natural gas reserves in the world. Chinese experts think that Sino-Russian cooperation in energy development will not only help China solve the problem of energy shortages, but also promote bilateral economic and trade growth. Russia joined China's efforts in utilizing mineral, natural gas and oil resources in northwest China's Qinghai Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region last year. It also invested heavily in the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in east China's Jiangsu Province in 1999. "Energy imports will be used to upgrade technology in power and petrol-chemical enterprises in northeast China," Wang Fushi said. Nekrasov is confident that Russia will gain high economic returns from energy cooperation with China. |
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