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Over 3,000 entrepreneurs to take part in business conference in Kiev

“The government is open for the dialogue with businessmen, for criticism and proposals to improve the situation in the country,” Azarov said

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, June 13 (Itar-Tass) - The International Business Conference, “Ukraine and Partners”, will open in Kiev on Thursday.

“This is the first large-scale business forum during the years of the independence. We will tell our partners how it is profitable to invest in the Ukrainian economy,” Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said.

Representatives of 1,500 companies and over 3,000 businessmen from 62 countries, including from Russia, intend to take part in the forum, Azarov said. “We should do our best to make the conference positive,” the prime minister said.

According to Azarov, the conference is expected to involve Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic, member of the collegiums of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tatyana Valova and European Commissioner for Energy Guenther Ottinger.

During the conference, the participants are expected to sign long-term agreements on cooperation in the fields of agriculture, machine-building, natural management and protection of biological resources, and the development of software, the Ukrainian prime minister stressed.

Earlier, he said the government pledged to create conditions for investors. “We realise that much should be done. The key task is to guarantee the high investment status for years by making our policy stable and predictable,” Azarov added.

In his words, in the first quarter foreign investors provided about 1.6 billion dollars to the Ukrainian economy (76 percent more than in January-March 2012). “As of April 1 the total amount of foreign investments reached 56 billion dollars,” the prime minister said. “It is rather small for such country and for the economic modernisation,” he added.

“The government is open for the dialogue with businessmen, for criticism and proposals to improve the situation in the country,” Azarov said.

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