Economy Minister Begins Visit to Russia
Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak began a visit to Moscow, where he is to attend a session of the Regional Communications Union (RCU) council, the Economy Ministry said.
At the session, which is to take place between 11 and 14 December, Slovenia will be given the status of an observer state, which offers new business possibilities for Slovenian telecommunications and postal companies, the ministry added.
Vizjak is also to discuss the possibility of strengthening cooperation in telecommunications and postal services with ministers for information technology and communications from Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
During his visit, which has been organised at the invitation of the Russian Minister of Information Technology and Communications Leonid Reyman, Vizjak is also to meet Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Hristenko, and Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin, with whom he is to discuss the Russian clearing debt to Slovenia.
He is also scheduled to meet Sergey Kruglik, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Construction, Housing and Public Utilities, with whom his co-chairs the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation. The pair is to discuss the meeting of the commission which is to take place next year in Slovenia.
Vizjak told Friday's edition of daily Delo that the main purpose of his visit is "political support for the Slovenian companies in the Russian market and the region".
"We want to open the door for the companies that have already established themselves in the region."
Vizjak said that his visit is not connected with the bids for the Slovenska industrija jekla steel group, nor with cooperation between the Slovenian energy company Petrol and Russian oil firm Lukoil, which are planning to launch a joint venture.
"I am not going to meet representatives of Lukoil and the meeting with the Gazprom management has been cancelled," he told the daily.
Economic cooperation between Russia and Slovenia has resulted in numerous high-profile visits this year.
In the end of May Prime Minister Janez Jansa and a strong government and business delegation visited Moscow, while lately Slovenia has been visited by several influential Russian businessmen.
Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov met Jansa in the end of November, and representatives of energy giant Gazprom visited some Slovenian energy companies last week.
The Russian federation is an important trade partner for Slovenia. Trade between the two countries has been on the rise in recent years and amounted to US$ 993.7m last year.
Slovenian companies have also bolstered investment activities on the Russian market in recent years. At the end of 2005 the direct investments of Slovenian companies in the Russian federation amounted to around EUR 84m.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|