Russia’s Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank/VEB) has signed key agreements with China’s state Development Bank and China’s Export-Import Bank.

The agreements were finalised during an official visit of the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to Russia.

VEB and China Ex-Im entered into an agreement on cooperation, signed by management board member, Vnesheconombank deputy chairman Petr Fradkov and China Export-Import Bank chairman and president Li Ruogu, with the aim of promoting long-term cooperation between the two institutions in trade and project financing and syndicated credits among other areas.

The agreement reached with the China State Development Bank was a framework for joint financing of investment projects. This was signed by VEB’s chairman Vladimir Dmitriev and China State Development Bank’s supervisory board chairman Yao Junmin.

Priority investments under the framework include power engineering, housing, aircraft construction, shipbuilding, transport and timber processing.