Chinese Goes East

It seems like there are going to be increased investment opportunities in Russia for China since the former country is in the process of “restructur[ing] its economy and reduc[ing] its reliance on commodities.” This can be seen through Fuyao Glass Industries Co. Ltd., which is one of the world’s biggest auto glassmakers which is now planning on investing $200m in a Russian glass factory. It actually marks Fuyao Glass’ first time branching out onto foreign soil. According to the company’s chairman Cao Dewang, production is set to begin at the end of 2011 and supply glass for over 3 million cars each year.

Increased Business Opportunities

There could be even more business opportunities for Russia with further deregulation of its domestic market which will be good for foreign enterprises. This is already being witnessed by China Investment Corp’s investment plans in Russian “infrastructure, negotiable securities and real estate.” Russia is definitely happy about Chinese investments that according to Federal Financial Markets Service head Vladimir Milovidov will “promote bilateral cooperation on trade and finance.” As well, Russia sees how good China’s financial market supervision policies are for their country.

Great Financial Plans Ahead

Since things are going so well in Russia and China doesn’t want to miss out, the latter country plans to invest $12bn in its market to “boost bilateral trade” by the year 2020. In the first six months of 2010, China invested $260m in Russia which was “58.5 percent higher than the same period of the previous year.” But former Russian ambassador to China Igor Rogachev pointed out some realities: “although China has become Russia's biggest trading partner, China is still not a major investor in the Russian market.”