BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The Baltic Pearl real estate project in St. Petersburg, China's largest investment project in Russia, has begun construction.

    Cai Laixing, chairman of the Shanghai Industrial Investment (Holdings) Company Limited, made the announcement here Wednesday at a high-level Sino-Russian economic forum.

    Cai's company is one of the five major Chinese investors in the project, which is some 800 km northwest of Moscow and covering an area of 208 hectare.

    The Baltic Pearl residential complex, a sign of growing investment ties between China and Russia, will be under construction for six to eight years and involve total financing of 1.346 billion U.S. dollars.

    The project was initiated in July 2003, marking the friendship between China and Russia as well as Shanghai City and St. Petersburg.

    It has become a milestone for China's overseas investment, said Cai.

    During the past five years, China started to encourage domestic companies to invest overseas and cooperate with counterparts in other countries and regions.

    By the end of 2005, more than 10,000 Chinese-funded enterprises had been set up overseas, with signed contracted projects worth 181.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. Enditem