The construction of the Tongjiang-Leninskoye railway bridge connecting China and Russian will begin in early October, said a Russian official on Sunday in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"The bridge will be a pivot of the transport corridor linking Russian with China and the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region," said V.S. Gulevechy, vice governor of Jewish Autonomous Oblast, at the second International Forum on Northeast Asia Regional Cooperation and Development.

The construction starts in the year of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, Gulevechy said.

The 3,000-meter-long bridge between China's Heilongjiang Province and Russian Jewish Autonomous Oblast, with an investment of 2 billion yuan by both sides, is expected to be completed in 2012, Gulevechy said.

The agreement was signed in October 2008, and each country will offer half of the total cost, he said.

The Jewish Oblast's trade volume with China had been stably increasing, and it increased 45 percent in 2008, Gulevechy said, one day before the 20th China Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair, also Harbin Trade Fair, running from June 15 to 19. The forum is part of the fair.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2009)