Indo-Russian trade to touch $10 Bn by 2010: envoy
Thursday, 22 May 2008, 01:25 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Kolkata: The bilateral trade between India and Russia is likely to achieve $10 billion by 2010 -- almost double the current figure, a senior Russian diplomat here has said. "As far as prospects of Russian-Indian trade relations are concerned, it's estimated that we have every practical opportunity for expanding our turnover to the amount of at least $10 billion in the next two years," Consul General of the Russian Federation here Vladimir V. Lazarev told reporters. Lazarev was talking to mediapersons in an interactive session "Enhancing Indo-Russian Business Cooperation", organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI) Monday. He said presently the annual trade turnover between India and Russia stands at just more that $5 billion, which is far below the economic potential of both the countries. Russia and India are setting up a Joint Study Group (JSG) to finalise a road map for increasing bilateral trade turnover to $10 billion by 2010. Lazarev said: "There are huge opportunities in the field of technology development especially in the IT sector, power, aviation, developing machinery, transport and pharmaceutical industry both in India and Russia," "Some Russian companies like Magnitogorsk steel plant, Russian Aluminium giant Rusal, Cheboksar tractor factory, and Transaero air carrier have already shown keen interest in opening up their operations in eastern India," Lazarev said, adding that Transaero air carrier has approached the Russian consulate to open up flight connectivity between Kolkata and Moscow. "But they (Transaero) have not received any go-ahead signal from our end so far," he said. He said the Indo-Russian business council has already been established at the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. The Russian part of the council, with the help of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, is designing a special website with huge database to facilitate the business communities and acquaint them about the new opportunities in both the countries.
Source: IANS
siliconindia