MOSCOW, March 5-- A senior economic official of Russia´s Moscow Oblast said Wednesday that the local government and companies there hope to further trade and economic cooperation, especially two-way investment, with their Chinese partners.

In an interview with Xinhua, Boris Prokonov, deputy foreign trade minister of the oblast, said the region recorded 2 billion U.S. dollars of trade with China last year, with its total foreign trade volume reaching 26 billion dollars.

The Moscow Oblast, which surrounds the metropolis of Moscow, has cooperated with Chinese provinces like Guangdong, Jiangsu and Hebei and sent delegations for the first time to the China Import and Export Trade Fairs last year, he said.

He welcomed Chinese companies to invest in such projects as auto assembly, development of industry park and house construction.

"We all know that in China, houses are modern and built speedily with good quality," he said.

Foreign investment in the oblast has surged from 300 million dollars in 2000 to some 7 billion dollars last year and was shifting from processing industry and agriculture to high-tech sectors, he noted.

The local government is interested in promoting cooperation with China in such sectors as aviation and space, bio-technology, nano-technology and information technology, he added.