Russia and China agreed to construct the first cross-border railway bridge over the Amur River by 2016. The bridge will cut transportation distance between the two countries by 700 kilometers. The decision was announced by Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
The investment memorandum on the construction of the bridge was signed as the result of negotiations between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The bridge capacity will be 21 million tons a year.
According to Dmitriev, the railway bridge will create export corridor between Russia and China. Moreover, it will facilitate transportation of goods from the new fields being developed in Russia's Eastern Siberia and the Far East. Prior to his visit to Jinping, Putin told journalists that China is Russia’s biggest trading partner with a trade volume reaching $90 billion in 2013. The two countries aim to boost the volume to $200 billion by 2020.
