Russia moots joint ventures with India to tap global market

Thursday, 05 December 2002, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday rolled out a red carpet for Indian industry, inviting it to form joint ventures with the Russians in a wide range of industrial areas to tap the global market. "I am convinced that close cooperation is the key in strengthening our position in the world market," Putin told a business meet organised jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Russian president suggested that part of India's debt could be converted into setting up joint ventures between the two nations in an effort to enhance their trade relations. Putin said Russia has recently made a lot of legislative and administrative changes to help domestic and foreign business grow in the country. "Good results can be achieved by investing part of Indian debt into joint ventures," he said, adding the time is "ripe" for increased trade cooperation between India and Russia on a host of industrial sectors including biotechnology, software, communications and energy. Putin arrived here late Tuesday for essentially a one-day visit. Senior members of his high-level delegation, including national security council chief Vladimir Rushailo and Technology Minister Ilya Klebanov, were also present at the business meet. The two countries hope to sign a number of agreements involving trade in arms and science and technology during Putin's visit. "We must work together to create new business opportunities in the both the countries. We have indications that the situation is improving steadily," he said. "The positive trends in the Russian economy have a sustainable character. These are good indicators for the Russian Federation," he added. Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said the current level of trade between India and Russia has failed to reflect the potential that exists. "We will work together to completely transform this in the next few years. We have discussed how we can remove impediments and we are determined to do that," he said. On the outcome of his meeting with the Russian president, Sinha said the discussion "augurs well for all fronts, especially economic front". The minister urged the Indian businessmen to invest in Russia to tap the huge market there. "Russia has become a market economy. India is also a market economy. In market economy countries, it is very important to create business-to-business relations. "Russia offers very good investment opportunity for Indian companies. Go to Russia with goodwill, products and money. I am sure you will not regret it. Let us not disregard the tremendous opportunity that await us," he added. Ashok Soota, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said the current Indo-Russian annual bilateral trade, excluding defence deals amount to a mere $1.4 billion. "The current trade levels remain way below the existing potential and have been an issue of grave concern for political leaders and business community on both sides," he said. According to the CII president, industrial sectors such as metallurgy, automotive, energy, information technology, banking, biotechnology, and education and entertainment offers "enormous" opportunities for cooperation. "We hope to double the trade turnover between Russia and India to $3 billion within the next two years," Soota said.
Source: IANS