Medvedev Hosts Online Conference with Chinese Youth to Encourage Friendship and Partnership
Moscow and Beijing must maintain friendly relations, as the situation in the world largely depends on their relations, Dmitry Medvedev has told to the Chinese during an online conference. Meeting Internet users is the first point of the Russian PM's two-day visit to China that starts today. Anastasia Sakhovskaya has found out what young Chinese are interested in.
The Russian premier has a Chinese online premiere. More than 9,000 questions from users are on the website at the beginning of the press conference. Many users are close to Russia. Last year our country was visited by 1,2 million Chinese. There are electronic visas, preferential treatment for groups of 5 people and more, further facilitation is planned.
Dmitry Medvedev: "The paper is currently under consideration of the Russian government to make these groups more compact, I mean, starting from 3 tourists, and to extend the period of stay up to 3 weeks".
Russia is opened for the guests of the future football World Cup. Xi Jinping is also interested in this sport. Chinese fans need to get not a visa, but a fan's passport.
Dmitry Medvedev: "It can solve a variety of tasks, starting from the usual entry into our country, besides, it can be done 10 days before the start of the championship, during the championship, and within 10 days after the end of the championship, which would allow to travel around the country within this rather long period. This is done without a visa, it is enough to simply register within the FAN ID procedure".
Questions follow one after another, with the overall audience 635 million people. The website of China's biggest newspaper "The Voice of China Online" is followed in Chinese by more than 200 million people, it's leading by the number of mobile app downloads, followers on social media and by the activity on foreign social platforms. They ask about the bilateral relations in figures.
The turnover has grown by one third, $ 54 billion. Prospects for space, nuclear, high-tech cooperation. Chinese investors are welcome in Russia. They enjoy taxing and interest rate benefits, especially in the Far East, where advanced development territories, agro-and techno-parks are located. Some Russian-Chinese projects are already growing.
Dmitry Medvedev: "These are projects in traditional energy, meaning oil and gas, and, of course, new areas of our cooperation including agro-industrial cooperation, high technologies, housing. There are good projects in all these areas. We hope that they will grow in number in the coming years".
PM was also asked personal questions, including his favorite sport (mountain skiing), food (dim-sum and Peking duck), music (from rock to jazz and classical). And, of course, about the prospects for bilateral relations. both countries intend to continue the rapprochement policy.
Today Dmitry Medvedev discussed bilateral relations with his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang. Tomorrow broader intergovernmental negotiations will be held. The Russian delegation includes the ministers of economy, communications, industry, agriculture. A number of important agreements are expected in these areas. The meeting with Xi Jinping will focus on trade and investment.
Anastasia Sakhovskaya, Mikhail Artyukhin, Mikhail Emelin, Alexandra Terpugova and Anna Medvedeva for Vesti from Beijing, China.