Aleksey Pesoshin takes part the third meeting of the Council in Volga-Yangtze format n Cheboksary

On May 23, Tatarstan Prime Minister Aleksey Pesoshin paid a working visit to Cheboksary to take part in the third meeting of the Council for cooperation of regions of Volga Federal District of Russian and the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River of the People's Republic of China (Volga-Yangtze format), with Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District Igor Komarov and Member of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yang being co-chairmen of the meeting.

Representatives of regions of the Volga Federal District and a number of Chinese provinces also participated in the event.

Opening the meeting, Komarov noted that the Volga-Yangtze interregional cooperation mechanism has proved to be relevant and is an illustrative model of cooperation between Russia and China. “Prior to the launch of the Volga-Yangtze format, only three agreements were concluded between regions of the Volga Federal District and provinces of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. After making a decision to create a new format for Russian-Chinese cooperation in 2013, the number of interregional agreements has increased to 38 in a relatively short time,” he said.

Komarov added that particular significance is given to relations in the field of investment cooperation. He continued that joint projects, including the construction of a cement plant in the Republic of Bashkortostan, a plant for the production of tool steel in the Republic of Mari El, the establishment of agricultural parks in the Chuvash Republic and the Penza Region and wood processing plants in the Perm Territory and other projects are underway at the moment.