A Chinese shopping mall will be built in the place of the closed Cherkizovsky Market besides a residential sector and a park, a Moscow official said Wednesday.

A Chinese delegation, which arrived in Moscow for negotiations on the abrupt closure of the market, proposed to build a large shopping and logistics center with the construction cost totally covered by the Chinese side, the Itar-Tass news agency reported, citing Vladimir Malyshkov, head of the metropolitan department of consumer market and services.

The logistics center will provide customs, sanitary and migration services, Malyshkov said, adding that a two-star hotel is also to be built there.

The total investment is estimated at $1 billion, and the construction will take two years, he said.

The official said that although the construction site has been determined, negotiations have not been concluded by now.

Cherkizovsky is Russia's biggest wholesale market. Russian police abruptly shut down the nearly 300-hectare market in northeastern Moscow on June 29, after the disclosure of various illegal and irregular operations in the market by the Russian Federal Supervision Service for Consumer Rights Protection and People Welfare.

A Chinese senior delegation, led by Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, reached three consensus with the Russian side on the closure issue.

The two sides agreed to further develop the Sino-Russian strategic cooperative partnership, deepen bilateral trade cooperation, and properly settle the closure issue through friendly negotiations.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2009)