Beijing, Jun 6 (IANS/RIA Novosti): A Chinese company will invest up to $3 billion to develop resorts in Russia's North Caucasus region.

"Our counterparts visited the Dagestan republic and cities of Derbent, Sochi, and Arkhyz, and we have signed a nearly $3 billion investment agreement," Akhmed Bilanov, head of Northern Caucasus Resorts which operates the tourist cluster, said Tuesday.

Bilanov added that China's Dalian Wanda Group Corporation may also invest in projects in the Moscow and St. Petersburg regions.

The Russian government launched the project in 2010 to create a tourism cluster in the Northern Caucasus region. The deal stipulates construction of five world-class resorts in 2011-2020.

The project is estimated at 451.4 billion rubles ($13.6 billion), including 60 billion rubles ($1.81 billion) from the federal budget.

The overall area of the future five resorts will amount to 2,500 sq km. The hotels will be able to host 83,500 tourists, while daily throughput of the cluster is scheduled to be 150,500 people.

Dalian Wanda Group Corporation Ltd. develops commercial properties, luxury hotels, cultural industries, film screens, and chain stores. The company was founded in 1988 and is based in Dalian, China.