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Petersburg government to take balanced decisions on cooperation with Turkish companies

Governor cited statistics suggesting that the city exports $ 257 million worth of produce to Turkey from January through September 2015 and imported Turkish produce to the tune of $ 222 million

St PETERSBURG, December 28. /TASS/. The city government of St Petersburg will be taking balanced decisions as regards cooperation with Turkish companies, St Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko said on Sunday as he spoke to reporters from a number of Russian news agencies.

"Turkish businesses are present here in this city," he said. "For instance, they're are engaged in the construction of the northwestern bypass speedway and Lakhta Center and it's clear the city shouldn't take any measures that will damage it."

"Nonetheless, Turkish companies may get problems in the future as regards involvement in economic project," he went on. "Close attention will be drawn to Turkish businesses."

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Poltavchenko cited statistics suggesting that the city exports $ 257 million worth of produce to Turkey from January through September 2015 and imported Turkish produce to the tune of $ 222 million.

The city authorities have been communicating with customs agencies quite actively of late in a bid to solve the problem of Turkish-made component parts for the automobile industry based in St Petersburg.

"All the factories are functioning normally without problems at the moment and we'll continue monitoring the situation daily together with the Federal Customs Service," he said. "In the future we'll reorient ourselves to the Russian products substituting for the imports. We're giving close attention to it so that we cold break up dependence (on imports) and advance to foreign markets with our own brand new products."

Earlier reports said local car manufacturers and other plants located here had bumped into a shortage of component parts from Turkey that had gotten stuck at customs offices in the wake of an outbreak of tensions between Russia and Turkey over the downing of the Russian Su-24M bomber by the Turkish Air Force in Syrian airspace.

At the request of local companies, Vice Governor Sergei Movchan contacted the top officials of the Federal Customs Service so as to resolve the problem fraught with bringing the factories to a halt.

The customs officials reacted to the request promptly and offered help.

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Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Scania, MAN, and a number of other manufacturers have factories in St Petersburg. These enterprise have a capacity for manufacturing almost 400,000 cars.

The city accounts for 22% to 25% of all the automobile output in Russia .

The northwest bypass speedway is a city toll road that will link the northern and southern districts of St Petersburg and will take away transit transport flows from the city center. The Turkish company Ita Inaat is a party to the consortium effectuating the project and another Turkish company, Mega Yapi Insaat acts as a technical consultant to contractors.

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