MOSCOW, November 16 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet with members of the Eastern Committee of German Economy -- the organiztion of businessmen that are interested in the development of trade-and-economic contacts with Russia and Eastern European countries.
Govenrment press service offisials point out, "The annual meeting which has already become traditional provides an opportunity on a regular basis substantively to exchange opinions about prospects for a further expansion of trade, economic and invesment cooperation between Russia and Germany".
Matters planned out for discusssion deal with cooperation in the field of certification, standardization and evaluation of conformity; the carrying out of industrail assembly operations in Russia; the implementation of the provisions of the "Third Energy Package of the European Union (EU)"; localization in Russia of plants for the production of farm machinery and components; cooperation in the raw materials sector; and the introduction of Russia-EU visa-free arrangements.
Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, Minister of Eenergy Sergei Shmatko, as well as the chiefs of the companies Wintershall, Gildemeister, Klaas, E.ON, Deutsche Lufthansa, Herrenknecht, and Verbundnetz gas AG will take part in the meeting.
For years the FRG has been the leading foreign-trading partner for Russia. Only in 2010 it was second after China. In the January-September period of 2011, Russo-German trade grew by 43.5 percent as compared with that in the corresponding period of last year to run at $51,800 million. Russian import over the period increased by 39.5 percent to amount to $25,000 million while import was up 47.5 percent to run at $26,800 million.
German investors are now represented in practically all branches of the Russian economy, including strategic ones. About 4,600 enterprises with German participation and about 800 ones with 100-percent German capital are operaing in 80 regions of Russia. Over 1,800 branches and representative offices of German firms have been regisyered as well.
About one-third of companies with German participation operate in the mining and processing branches of industry. The German companies E.ON/Ruhrgas, Knauf, Metro, Volkswagen, Siemens, BASF, Klaas,and Thyssen-Krupp are best known for their participation in the real sector of theRussian economy.
In December 2007, German business as represented by BASF Company for the first-ever time began to participate in the production of Russian gas at the Yuzhno-Russkoye (souhern Russia) gasfield. The E.ON/Ruhrgas joined in that gasfield development in October 2008.
Both Russia and Germany evince mutual economic interest in cooperation. Up to 40 percent of the FRG's import requirements for natural, up to 30 percent requirements for oil, and over ten percent of requirements for non-ferrous metals and mineral fertilizers are met resultant of deliveries from Russia.
Russian invesments in Germany amounted to $4,700 million in 2010 -- four times as much as the indicators of 2009 -- and to $2,900 million in the first half of 2011. Six hundred and twenty enterprises with Russian participation are now registered in the FRG. In particular, Gazprom as strategic investor has put 1,000 million euros in conjunction with BASF into projects in the FRG. Severostal became the major shareholder of the leading German travel company TUI while Agromashholding became a shareholder of the steel firm Luitpoldhute AG.
The Eastern Committee of German Economy plays a marked role in developing trade-and-economic relations between Russia and Germany. It promoted the formmulation of the FRG's newapproaches to economic relations with the Russian Federation, based on closer contacts with the constituent entities of theRF. The Committee often conducts negotations on the strength of special powers and assignments of the Government of the FRG.