Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Tuesday proposed China and Russia to deepen cooperation in science and technology and carry out strategic cooperative projects, such as the heavy helicopter, wide-body jet and nuclear energy.

Wang made the remarks when addressing the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Business Summit Forum in Beijing.

Wang said 2013 is a pivotal and fruitful year for China-Russia relations, featuring high-level political relations, steady development of bilateral trade, effective investment cooperation, successful energy cooperation and increasingly improved cooperative mechanism.

China and Russia are a pair of good friends sharing weal and woe, and good partners of mutual benefit and common development, he said.

The deeper bilateral pragmatic cooperation goes, the stronger China-Russia comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership will be, he added.

To expand China-Russia pragmatic cooperation, the vice premier suggested the two sides to optimize their trade structure, expand the items of import and export goods, and create new growth areas, such as high-tech products and agricultural products.

He said the two sides should promote mutual investment, improve investment environment, explore new ways for investment cooperation, and encourage enterprises of both sides to conduct cooperation in the forms of mutual equity participation, merger and acquisition, and bond issuance.

He also encouraged the two countries to expand local cooperation, and push forward the construction of transportation infrastructure, such as transboundary oil and gas pipelines, road and bridge, optical communication cables, and transmission grids.

Russian Deputy Prime Minster Dmitry Rogozin also attend the opening ceremony of the forum.