China will increase cooperation with Mongolia and Russia in trade and infrastructure construction, according to an outline of the plan for the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor that was revealed on Tuesday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.
The plan was compiled based on a memorandum of understanding signed in July 2015 by the three countries on constructing the economic corridor.
According to the NDRC statement, China, Mongolia and Russia will increase the scale of trade in areas like agricultural products, energy and building materials.
The three countries will also strengthen trade cooperation in the services sector and cooperate on software program design and data maintenance.
China's trade with Russia increased 1 percent year-on-year from January to August to about 44 billion yuan ($6.59 billion), data from the General Administration of Customs showed on September 8.
The three countries will establish cross-border economic cooperation zones, the NDRC statement said.
China, Russia and Mongolia intend to jointly develop their infrastructure sectors by constructing international land transportation corridors, starting new railway and highway projects, and negotiating new rules for cross-border transportation.
They will also strengthen port construction and enhance their cooperation in supervising cross-border food trade, the NDRC statement stressed.
According to the statement, the economic corridor is intended to strengthen the three countries' mutual cooperation and support win-win economic development, as well as to increase the countries' joint competitiveness in the international market.
The statement stressed that multiple channels will be used for financing, such as government investment, public-private partnerships and investment from international financial institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank.
