China and Russia on Friday agreed to establish a joint chamber of commerce for machinery and electronics products to facilitate trade.

Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai revealed the news, along with a variety of other agreements covering areas such as farm products and lumber, after meeting with Minister of Russian Economic Development and Trade German Gref.

The mechanism was agreed by President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year.

Bo said the two sides were still discussing how to launch the chamber.

"China expects to import more machinery and electronic products from Russia, but we will choose what is proper," Bo said.

Russia is competitive in manufacturing machinery and electronics products, but its exports to China have declined in recent years. The two sides expect the new agreement to reignite trade in this field.

Agreements were also reached in other areas, such as promoting lumber processing and strengthening cooperation in border trade.

Gref said two sides will also set up a mechanism to deal with issues involving farm products, but he did not elaborate.

Russia also invited Chinese enterprises to help build infrastructure for the APEC summit scheduled to be held in Russia in 2012 and the Winter Olympics in 2014.

The two ministers also discussed issues including labor movements and vehicle trade.

Bo said the value of bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to hit $40 billion by the end of this year.

The meeting between Bo and Gref was also intended to lay the groundwork for a coming vice-premier level meeting as well as a premier-level meeting between the two countries at the end of this year.

In another development, Russia yesterday also agreed to open by November 1 three additional border crossings along northeast China's Heilongjiang Province for the inspection of Chinese rice exports to Russia.

Chinese enterprises have been increasing their investments in Russia in recent years.

Chinese firms have established in Russia an economic and trade cooperation zone, aimed at developing industrial clusters in the region. A number of Chinese auto makers have also set up operations in the neighboring country.

(China Daily August 25, 2007)