Business

India, Russia sustain business ties: Kamal Nath

— PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

ATTRACTING MORE INVESTMENTS: V. P. Evtushenkov (right), Head of Russian CEOs Council, with Kamal Nath (centre), Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, at the first meeting of the India-Russia CEOs Council in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath on Friday asked Indian and Russian business community to further expand their cooperation and explore new opportunities of investments in banking, information technology, telecommunications, power and pharmaceutical sectors.

Addressing India-Russia CEOs Council meeting here, Mr. Nath said both nations had managed to sustain strong business relations. “The India-Russia Forum on Trade & Investment has underscored the need for investment cooperation in a large number of sectors. Indian companies are quickly establishing themselves in Russia and the cumulative Indian investments in the Russian economy amounted to $744.1 million,” he added.

Mr. Nath, who also launched the India Brand Equity Forum (IBEF) website in Russian language to attract more investments into India, said there was a strong case for Russian companies to invest in India, especially in the power sector. “Russia is energy rich and India’s energy requirements are going to increase manifold over the next 10-15 years,” he pointed out.

Referring to the global meltdown, Mr. Nath hoped that both the economies would bounce back because of their sound fundamentals and large domestic demand.

The Russian delegation told the Minister that their country was taking many steps to increase its economic engagements with India, the main being setting up of the Noressel Port in the Black Sea that would directly link St. Petersburg with Mumbai via Iran. In the USSR-era, the Odessa port used to be the main facilitator of trade, which is now in Ukraine.

Russian firms are also engaging in the telecommunications sector. Its services conglomerate Sistema has already tied up with new telecom operator Shyam Telelink and inked multi-million dollar deal, while Russia’s aluminium major Rusal and other metallurgy firms are scouting for opportunities in India.

Bilateral trade between India and Russia that is growing annually at 30 per cent and is expected to touch $7 billion by the end of the current fiscal. Cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows from Russia till August 2008 were $144 million. The top sectors that attracted FDI inflows were medical and surgical appliances, hotel and tourism and food processing industries.

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