BRASILIA, December 11. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian-Brazilian intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation set the tasks for further promoting strategic partnership and strengthening a technology alliance.
The commission’s meeting ended in Brasilia on Tuesday. It brought together the two countries’ ministry officials, representatives of central and commercial banks, state-run and private companies that had already been implementing joint projects in trade, investments, scientific and cultural exchanges.
The task groups focused on how to boost traditional cooperation and find new areas of growth to take the trade turnover to $10 billion in 2015. Thus, the two countries seek to double their trade that is now restoring after a decline caused by the 2008 global financial and economic crisis.
Investment activity should help resolve such large-scale tasks, Russian co-chair of the commission, Deputy Economic Development Minister Alexei Likhachev told Itar-Tass.
“We have good opportunities to diversify and expand cooperation for our trade to serve as a formal indicator of our relations’ intensity. All this envisages the creation of joint ventures, deeper cooperation in all areas from the services sector, software technologies and tourism to the creation of heavy engineering enterprises with participation of such companies as Power Machines OJSC and Uralvagonzavod,” he said.
“Opportunities for entering the Latin American market are opening for Russian big business through Brazil,” Likhachev said, adding that one of the promising areas of cooperation was nuclear power, where Russia proved to be highly competitive.
Concrete projects with participation of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom were discussed within a special working group of the intergovernmental commission.
“Thirty years ago I couldn’t even imagine in my boldest dreams that Brazil’s Marco Polo and Russian truck maker Kamaz will jointly build buses in Bashkiria, while Rosneft will survey and develop oil and gas in Amazonia,” Brazilian Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Antonio da Rocha Paranhos, who had been working as his country’s ambassador to Russia for many years, told Itar-Tass. “The intergovernmental commission’s work proved successful and allowed to draw up guidelines for cooperation and define projects that can move us forward.”
Delegates to the intergovernmental commission agreed to hold a teleconference on Russian-Brazilian cooperation next February. Moreover, the fulfillment of decisions taken in Brazil will be analyzed during meetings on the sidelines of the BRICS summit due in Brazil’s Fortaleza next April. The summit will bring together leaders of major emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.