ST. PETERSBURG, July 30. /TASS/. Official authorities should help Russian companies desirous to start operations in Africa and provide administrative support to them, President Vladimir Putin told reporters.

Official agencies need to help Russian companies when they come to Africa, the head of state noted, commenting on reporter’s words regarding the complaints from the African side that it is "difficult to reach out" Russian majors. "Africa is developing, plenty of things are in demand and the administrative support is merely needed, which, to all appearance, was not done in due course and with proper quality," the President said.

"For example, there were talks today that Lukoil is operating in certain countries there. It is not working in African countries only; it has good operations in the Middle East. Other companies are entering [Africa], dealing with development of gold, and certain other ore in addition. There are those dealing with renewable energy sources. We have an opportunity to enter and build hydropower plants. They [African countries] show interest in small-capacity nuclear power plants," Putin added.