The 2nd China-Russia Expo, scheduled for the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, Oct 12 – 15, has already attracted business people from 16 countries, the organizers reported on July 9, including representatives of government departments and enterprises in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, Siberian Federal District, Ural Federal District, and Volga Federal District.

There will also be traders from Japan, South Korea, and Thailand in Asia and Belgium and other European countries, the organizers say, noting that the first two days are scheduled for global trade deals and the search for business partners and for information exchanges, while, during the last two days it will be open to visitors.

Russia-China trade last year was worth $95.2 billion, meaning just barely below the $100-billion mark set by the two countries in 2011, but, this year, trade in first two months was down 30.7 percent from the same period a year ago.

The first China-Russia Expo, formerly the China Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair, ran June 30 - July 4, 2014 and had more than 10,000 business people from all over taking part.

The province, with a population of 38.34 million (2012), shares a border with Russia to the north and east for 2,891 kilometers. It also has import and export agreements with Russia worth $3.15 billion and agreements on 260 economic and technological cooperation projects that came from the first Expo, and Heilongjiang-Russia trade in 2014 accounted for 24.4 percent of total Sino-Russian trade.

Sponsors of the Expo are China’s Ministry of Commerce, the Heilongjiang government, and Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Industry and Trade. It is expected to a great site for economic cooperation as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges.