Actuality February 13, 2008

   Commodity turnover of Russia and India is extremely small now, stated the Prime Minister

of Russia Victor Zubkov, speaking on the investment forum in India.

In 2007 commodity turnover grew by 30% (data of Federal Customs Service (FSC)), less than 1% of the Russian foreign trade turnover falls to India. Large potential for the Indian investors, Zubkov is sure, is in the innovative sphere, in the infrastructure, pharmaceutics. Nanotechnologies and Olympic Games in Sochi do not leave a forward-looking investor indifferent, he considers.

The aim is $10 bln of commodity turnover by 2010, the Prime Minister said.

$5 bln – commodity turnover of Russia with India
$48,2 bln – commodity turnover with China

   The present trade volume does not maintain criticism, the head of FCS Andrey Belyaninov says.

"Indian textiles, medicine come to us mainly through Europe that makes them considerably expensive". The accumulated Russian investments

are in India – 1% from the total volume, complained one of the forum initiators, the president

of the Savings Bank German Gref.

The same situation is with the Indian investments in Russia, where China is much more active.

   Businessmen are ready to cooperate. The representative office of VTB Bank and JSC Sistema was opened in New Delhi.

Chairman of JSC Sistema board of directors Vladimir Yevtushenkov plans to create pan-Indian mobile company, and to invest $1 bln on the first stage.

Now mobile market of India is the most fast growing in the world: monthly the number of subscribers becomes more by 7,5 millions, in 2020 there will be 555 millions of them (now – 322 millions). JSC Sistema is going to cooperate in the production sphere of noncontact cards and chips, construction of the office and residential real estate, said Yevtushenkov

    Aeroflot considers increasing the number of flights to Bombay and Delhi,

to open new directions, said Valeriy Okulov, the company general manager.

"The secret of the East beckons the Russian tourists more and more". But in India is badly developed t he ground infrastructure, deficit of hotels,

he marked. The Savings Bank is going to enter the Indian market, Gref reported. But, at the moment there is no structure between Russia and India that could support enterprises on the entrance to the unfamiliar market.

The president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Aleksander Shokhin suggested creating the council for cooperation and investments. Large plans also has the leader of Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography Mikhail Shvydkoy – to bring tenth of the new Russian movies to the Indian market.

   Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marked the perspectives of cooperation in the sphere of minerals, transport, services, IT.

But Indians do not know about the economic and social situation in Russia, marked Nand Kkhemka, the chairman of the Russian-Indian business council. They know president Putin and cosmonaut Gagarin only.