OREANDA-NEWS. December 11, 2012. Sberbank announces that it has signed a cooperation agreement with the China Development Bank, reported the press-centre of Sberbank.

The signing took place in Moscow during a meeting between government officials from Russia and China.

The signed documents define the main agreed areas of cooperation as: the co-financing of infrastructure projects, payments in national currencies - rubles and yuan, trade finance and documentary business, operations on the global capital markets.

Since 2010 a representative office of Sberbank has been operating in Beijing. This year, in Moscow the management of Sberbank met with the heads of Chinese banks demonstrating the appetite for mutual cooperation. In October 2012 a delegation from Sberbank, headed by Deputy Chairman of Sberbank Andrey Donskih, visited Beijing and Shanghai and held negotiations with the management of the eight leading banks in the PRC.

"China is the main trading partner of Russia,” - said Deputy Chairman of Sberbank Andrey Donskih. – “Annual sales volumes between the two countries are close to USD 100 billion. At the same time the volume of our joint operations with banks in China is still relatively small, but there is great potential for cooperation with the PRC banks. Russia has ambitious economic goals and its infrastructure projects in the Far Eastern part of the country require joint efforts from major banks.  This makes cooperation with the China Development Bank, and Chinese financial institutions in general, a key part of our international strategy".