Russia and China will develop cooperation in the field of transport.

For five days, meetings of the working groups of government delegations from Russia and China were held at the International Exhibition Complex Novosibirsk Expo Centre. The meetings took place as part of in the 16th session of the Subcommittee on Cooperation in the Field of Transport of the Commission for Preparation of Regular Meetings between the heads of the governments of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic. The work of the Russian and Chinese delegations was conducted in several directions, including relations in the field of rail transport, roads and vehicles, sea and river transport, air transport, as well as check points.

The result of the five-day meeting was signing of the Subcommittee meeting Protocol by the Minister of Transport of Russia Maxim Sokolov and the Minister of Railways of China Sheng Guangji.
Signing of the Protocol was preceded by a Plenary Meeting of the Russian and Chinese delegations. Declaring the meeting open, Maxi, Sokolov noted that meetings of specialized working groups of the Subcommittee dedicated to all modes of transport, which were held the day before, displayed a traditionally high level of cooperation and partnership.

“Russian and Chinese authorities are making significant efforts to develop transport links between the two countries” said the Russian Minister.

He said that the volume of freight traffic by rail between Russia and China in the last 7 months of the year 2012 increased by 5% to more than 16 million tons. During this period, approximately 214,000 large containers in twenty-foot equivalent were transported, a 19% increase over the year 2011. The volume of international long-distance passenger traffic in 2011 increased by 1%, comprising more than 40,000 passengers.

In the field of civil aviation, the passenger volume for 2011 comprised 1,200,000 people, a 42% increase compared to 2010. In the last 6 months of the year 2012, the passenger traffic grew by 15%.

Freight traffic from road transport in 2011 increased by more than 20%, an increase of passenger traffic reached 35%, comprising 2.7 million people.

For water transport, turnover increased by 19% and comprised 31 million tons in 2011. The volume of cargo riverboats in 2011 increased by 5% compared to 2010 and amounted to 973,000 tons.

“In general, we see an increase in the volume of both freight and passenger traffic. However, we cannot stop there. We need to continue our work in this direction” said Maxim Sokolov.

The meeting summed up the work of the Subcommittee on Transport for 2011 - 2012's., issues of further development of bilateral cooperation in the field of transport were discussed, and an action plan for the work of Subcommittee for 2012 - 2013 was agreed.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation thanked the Governor of the Novosibirsk region Vasily Yurchenko for the excellent organization of activities for the work of the Subcommittee in Novosibirsk.