All news

Russia-Singapore high-level commission to discuss wider cooperation

SINGAPORE, September 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Prospects for giving greater scope to cooperation in the economy and other spheres will be the main subject of discussion at a session of the Russia-Singapore High-Level Commission on Wednesday. The panel is co-chaired by Igor Shuvalov, Russia's First Vice-Premier, and Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's Vice-Premier and Minister of Finance.

On the eve of the Commission's meeting, an official at the Embassy of Russia to Singapore told ITAR-TASS that the Commission "is the main mechanism for tackling the tasks of deepening and diversifying bilateral contacts. Working groups for Singapore's cooperation with the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg have been set up as well".

Russia-Singapore goods turnover grew by 17% last year to run at 5.7 billion dollars, the local Agency for International Entrepreneurship reports. So, the Russian Federation took up the 19th position in the list of trading partners of the city-state, shifting two points upwardly. Oil, petroleum products and metals were Russia's staple export commodities while components of machinery and equipment, electronics, textile and chemical products predominated Russia's import.

Bilateral investment cooperation is gaining in scoe as well. According to the Russian side's data, cumulative direct investments from Singapore in 2013 amounted to 123.7 million dollars. Russian investments last year amounted to 1.3 billion dollars. LUKOIL Company is the main source of the investments. In Singapore, nine special-purpose ships, including the icebreaker Varandey were built for the Russian company in the 2007-2009 period.

Along with participating in the Commission's session and bilateral talks, Shuvalov is expected to attend the opening of an annual Russia-Singapore business forum.