China and Russia should expand economic cooperation beyond the energy sector, and direct investment between the two countries should also be strengthened, experts said at a press briefing in Beijing Friday, three days ahead of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to China.

Medvedev will visit China from Tuesday to Wednesday. During his stay, Medvedev and Premier Li Keqiang will co-chair the 18th regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news briefing on Monday.

"I think Medvedev's visit to China will focus on carrying forward the agreements signed in March [when President Xi Jinping visited Russia] and firming up the two countries' cooperative relationship," Li Dong, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said at the press briefing.

Several major energy deals were signed during President Xi's visit to Russia, and in a joint statement released on March 23, the two countries set an annual bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2015 and $200 billion by 2020.

In the first three quarters of this year, bilateral trade between China and Russia reached $66 billion, and Li Dong noted that given the close cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector, it will not be difficult to reach the target.

Also on Friday, the China National Petroleum Corporation announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Rosneft Oil, Russia's leading crude oil producer, to tap oil reserves in eastern Siberia.

But experts at the Friday press briefing said that the two countries should also step up cooperation in other fields beyond the energy sector, such as high-tech industries, infrastructure and agriculture.

They also noted that direct investment between China and Russia should be boosted.

China's direct investment to Russia stands at $300 million to $600 million each year, accounting for less than 1 percent of China's outbound investment, said Li Dong, and Russia's direct investment in China stands at around $30 million each year - a very small number compared with $121 billion of foreign investment in China in 2012.

Nikolay Kotlyarov, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation in Moscow, said that Russia is willing to see more small and medium-sized Chinese companies to invest in the country.

Medvedev is scheduled to visit an innovation center in East China's Anhui Province on Wednesday, which according to Li Dong, indicates that cooperation in high-tech industries field may also be discussed during his visit to China.