AKIPRESS.COM - Moscow and Beijing do not plan to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) that would include Russia’s Far East and the bordering Chinese regions, Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov said Thursday.

"Neither we, nor the Chinese have plans to create some sort of a geographically outlined zone or region [with China]," Ivanov told journalists of RIA.

At the same time, the chief of staff pointed to the "real, positive fact of a sharp increase of trade turnover between [Russia’s] eastern regions and the corresponding regions of China."

Russian-Chinese joint projects in energy, transportation, infrastructure and engineering should allow annual trade volumes between the nations to increase from the current $100 billion to $200 billion by 2020, Ivanov said Wednesday.

A large share of the turnover is to come from the $400-billion deal between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Under the contract, Russia is to provide China with 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year.