A China-Russia (Harbin) economic and trade index – reflecting the level and trends in bilateral trade – was launched on Sept 16 in Harbin, capital city of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province which borders Russia.

The index – which was designed and developed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Renmin University of China and the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing – aims to provide information for decisions on Harbin's economy and its trade with Russia’s central cities.

The trade with Russia has been going extremely well. The 2020 China-Russia Economic and Trade Index Report showed that the Harbin index ended last year at 149.46 points, an increase of 13.01 percent year-on-year.

As one of the earliest cities in China to carry out trade with Russia, Harbin has a commercial history with that country going back more than a century.
 
In recent years – against the background of the Chinese government's continued promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative – Harbin has had extensive and in-depth dealings with Russia in many areas of trade, by virtue of its geographical location.

The Harbin New Zone got the approval from the State Council, China’s Cabinet, on Dec 16 in 2015 – making it the only national-level new zone in China tasked primarily with trade and commerce and industry cooperation with Russia.

Five years on, the Harbin area of the China Heilongjiang Pilot Free Trade Zone was established on Aug 26, 2019, with cooperation with Russia identified as a central task.

Over the period of a year, the Harbin FTZ has opened up the logistics chain, industrial chain, financial chain and science and technology chain for foreign cooperation.

It has also promoted Harbin’s urban development and advanced its status as a hub for cooperation with Russia and Northeast Asia.