The China Heilongjiang Pilot Free Trade Zone, or Heilongjiang FTZ – located in China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang – has boosted commerce and trade with neighboring Russia since its establishment in August 2019.

Statistics from an online economic and trade and commerce meeting between the Heilongjiang FTZ and Russia on Aug 5 indicated that in the first half of the year, the value of its trade with Russia reached 60 billion yuan ($9 billion). 

That was an increase of 18 percent year-on-year and accounted for 64 percent of the province's total foreign trade during the period and 15 percent of the country's total trade with Russia. 

Heilongjiang FTZ is said to have prioritized institutional innovation, which has generated more than 200 individual initiatives over a six-month period – apparently making it an extremely attractive new platform for trade with Russia.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation.

The strategic partnership between the Far East region in Russia and Heilongjiang province is in the interests of the two countries, according to Aleksey Starichkov, director of the Department of International Cooperation of Primorsky Krai in Russia.

The Russian Far East outpost of Primorsky Krai – whose largest city and administrative center Vladivostok – has also reportedly had a long and deep friendship with nearby China.

In recent years, China has contributed to more than 50 percent of the total foreign trade volume of Primorsky Krai every year.

By the end of 2020, the foreign trade volume of Primorsky Krai exceeded $4 billion and its trade with China came in at 52.3 percent of the total.