Russia's Far East looks forward to expanding its cooperation with China, the governor of the Khabarovsk region said Friday.

"As the Khabarovsk region shares a border with China, I believe we have a lot of communications and we have been maintaining cooperation with the Chinese side," Governor Vyacheslav Shport told Xinhua on the sidelines of the 2009 Russia-European Union.

The summit is being held in Khabarovsk, the capital of the Khavarovsk region and the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia.

Shport said the Russian government has been studying proposals to better facilitate "pragmatic border cooperation" with China.

Meanwhile, President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia should interest China in investing in its Far East while coordinating development of the region with China's efforts to rejuvenate its northeastern industrial bases.

The governor agreed with Medvedev, who spoke during a session on cooperation between Russia's border areas, China and Mongolia.

"Moscow is indeed far, far away from us, so it is more realistic for us to collaborate with China's northeast area," Shport said.

It usually takes about seven hours by air to reach Khabarovsk from Moscow but only about 40 minutes by ferry is needed to reach Fuyuan County in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The governor said there are about 10,000 Chinese workers in the region, and hundreds of people cross the borders daily.

Shport acknowledged the contribution of the workers to the regional economy and said more are welcome to work in the area.

"I think we should expand and deepen spheres of cooperation with China, such as in machinery and high technologies, in order to bring the long-standing bilateral cooperation to a higher level," the governor said.

He suggested, too, that bilateral trade between Russia and China be not limited to just buying and selling each other's goods. Instead, he said, the two should strengthen high-technology project exchanges and cooperate on the basis of mutual benefits.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2009)