The state of Alaska has struck a major joint development deal with China on Wednesday to build a natural gas export terminal in the state.

The agreement was signed in the presence of President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to China on Thursday, according to the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, one of the party's to the deal along with the State of Alaska.

“This is an agreement that will provide Alaska with an economic boom comparable to the development of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in the 1970s,” said Alaska Gov. Bill Walker.

The development corporation and the state government signed the joint liquefied natural gas, or LNG, development agreement with the state-ran China Petrochemical Corporation, or Sinopec, CIC Capital Corporation, and Bank of China.

“Today’s agreement brings the potential customer, lender, equity investor, and developer together with a common objective of crafting mutually beneficial agreements leading to increased LNG trade between Alaska and China,” said Keith Meyer, president the Alaska development corporation.

Sinopec said its goal is to help create a "stable" route for purchasing LNG from Alaska.

The liquefied natural gas project named Alaska LNG will include three trains, or terminals, with the annual capacity of producing 20 million tons of liquefied product for shipment abroad to Asia.

The facility will also include an 800-mile-long pipeline, a gas treatment plant on the North Slope of Alaska where much of its energy production takes place.

"Under the agreement, the parties have agreed to work cooperatively on LNG marketing, financing, investment model and China content in Alaska LNG, and get a periodic result by 2018," according to a joint statement.

“As the most internationalized bank in China, Bank of China is willing to facilitate the China-U.S. energy cooperation and provide financial solutions for this transaction by taking advantage of its vast experiences and expertise in international mega-project financing,” a statement by the Bank of China said.