At 9:30 am, the train with 40 containers left the station from Xiamen Free Trade Zone carrying goods worth $363,000 including granite, lighting supplies, artificial flowers and shoes for Moscow.

A single trip on the 10,920-km route takes 13 to 14 days. Without the direct train service, it used to take at least 25 days to transport goods.

The train route connects the eastern and northeastern Chinese cities of Nanchang, Nanjing, Jinan and Jinzhou, and crosses the border via Manzhouli Port in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Jiang Jingdong, assistant general manager of Xiamen Haicang Free Trade Port Zone Investment and Construction Management Co Ltd, said the service is still in trial operations with three trips from Xiamen to Moscow per month. The freight train service will be normalized in the second half of this year.

Huang Changhong, manager of Trans-China Logistics Co Ltd, said that trade between Xiamen and Russia is complementary. Xiamen and its surrounding cities are export-oriented with machinery equipment and shoemaking industries, while it imports wood, paper pulp and vegetable oil from Russia.

Lin Jiangfan, an official with Xiamen Haicang Free Trade Port Zone, said that as the host city of the 2017 BRICS Summit slated for September, Xiamen welcomes a closer partnership with Russia, one of the BRICS countries. The Xiamen-Moscow freight train service could also strengthen the Belt and Road Initiative, driving trade in Xiamen.

In 2016, exports from Xiamen to Russia reached more than 5 billion yuan ($727 million), and imports from Russia totaled 1.9 billion yuan.

Under the deal, the two sides will enhance cooperation in product development, sales, marketing and customer services, connecting the sales platform and brand to offer clients better services.

Hu Shengli, president of JD.com Inc's 3C business department, said the two companies aimed to offer high-quality products and services to meet clients' changing needs.

"Instead of simply copying the offline experiences, we will focus on industry exploration and networking. Supported by JD's technology capability and platform, it will be a win-win game."

"We two will especially work together to provide customer services, which will help reduce the cost and offer better user experiences."

With the help of JD.com's big data technology, HP Inc will be able to better target the enterprise market, introducing more customized products and industry solutions accordingly, the company said.

According to a report released by market research company IDC in April, HP Inc took back the top spot in the global PC market by shipment for the first quarter this year, followed by its rival Lenovo.

Zhuang Zhengsong, president of HP Greater China Region, said HP will take JD.com as its priority sales platform and will work with JD.com to bring more products for corporate clients.

The minister added that the construction of a third joint power plant with Russia, with the capacity of 1,400 MW, has already begun.

Last year, the Iranian vice president and head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi talked about the plans to construct two new nuclear units in cooperation with Russia. He stressed that the process could take up to ten years and would cost $10 billion.

Earlier this year, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow wanted to finalize the agreement with Iran and help the country build more power plants.

Moscow and Tehran have been deepening ties in a number of sectors, including oil, defense, and fisheries.

Following a decade of total economic isolation energy-hungry Iran is eager to start building power plants and update its energy infrastructure. Russian companies are likely to be among the preferred bidders.

Russian energy major Gazprom has sealed a cooperation agreement with its Iranian counterpart for the development of local gas deposits.

During his visit to Moscow last month, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani highlighted the importance of the energy sector in bilateral relations and the possible creation of a free trade zone between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union that includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

The customers who used to head to greenhouses in the rural areas to get fresh vegetables and fruits in different varieties, are now able to buy these products with a tag ‘locally-made’ in supermarkets and grocery stores of Ulaanbaatar.

“Chandmani” Agro-park, with an aim to provide fresh and organic products to the population of Ulaanbaatar, is planning to supply its products to military units in the future.

Mongolia is aiming to establish domestic factories interconnected with each other as an Industrial Technological Park following the example of countries with highly developed industry.

The agricultural and technological “Chandmani” Agro-park is working to establish shopping centers and factories to manufacture final products of milk, meat, fruits and berries and vegetables on its 80 hectares of land in Bayanchandmani soum within the framework of “Food Production” project. The Agro-park owns a total of 1900 hectares of land.