TIANJIN, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Trade between China and Russia reached 164.8 billion yuan (24.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of this year, up 9.8 percent compared with the same period last year, according to China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

It is expected that bilateral trade between the two countries will keep momentum in 2019, according to Luo Weidong, director of Eurasian Affairs Department of the MOC, at the China Tianjin International Fair for Investment and Trade.

Chinese investment in Russia has expanded to infrastructure construction, equipment manufacturing, oil and chemical industry, and information technology, Luo said.

Russian companies are eager to tap in to the huge Chinese market. At the investment and trade fair which opened Thursday, 16 Russian companies brought their products to China, including food, beverage, grain, oil, and handicrafts.

Kozlovskaya L.M., head of a Russia export company, said her company had set up a duty-free shop in Manchuria, a city in north China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.

"Though transaction volume is still relatively small, the shop is a channel for further bilateral cooperation and exchange," the Russian businesswoman said.

Trade between China and Russia reached 107.06 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 27.1 percent year on year, according to the MOC.