Rostelecom and China Telecom (China Telecommunications Corporation) concluded a cooperation agreement on the Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) telecoms project in April 2004. In May 2006, Rostelecom launched a new fiber-optic data transmission line linking Russia's Far Eastern cities of Belogorsk and Blagoveshchensk with the Chinese city of Heihe on the Russian border.
The company said in a statement that the sides planned to expand the range of services using the TEA line's broadband capability and highlighted the project's importance given that traffic between Europe and Asia is expected to triple by 2010.
Russia and China are planning to boost trade turnover from about $30 billion at present to $60-80 billion in the near future.
During President Vladimir Putin's visit to China in March 2006, a number of Russian companies and agencies signed agreements with Chinese firms.
Utility giant Unified Energy Systems has signed an electricity export contact with China's State Grid Corporation, while state-owned oil major Rosneft and natural gas monopoly Gazprom signed agreements on supplies and joint ventures with the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation.
Telecoms company Kosmicheskaya Svyaz and Chinanetcomgroup Ltd. have agreed to cooperate in providing international satellite television broadcasts of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The St. Petersburg city government has also signed agreements with China's Eximbank and with the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation, which is financing a massive development project in Russia's second city.
