September 19, 2005

Russia has called for a shift in bilateral trade from State-to-State relations to B2B (business-to-business), in an effort to trigger more growth in its commercial trade volumes.

"For many years, these bilateral agreements were mostly based on State-to-State contracts, but we needed to change that, said Mr Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Russian Ambassador to India".

Addressing an interactive meeting with members of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), he said seller-to-buyer model should also be changed to a new system of economic agreements where mutual production, marketing, licensing and research arrangements were made.

"This is the future," Mr Trubnikov said.

He called for efforts to set up a Russian-Indian techno park or IT park to synergise the expertise. Hyderabad has emerged as an international informational technology hub.

"Russia is also a well-established centre of IT business. It would be quite natural for us to join efforts and set up a Russian-India technopark," Mr Trubnikov said.

He was leading a business delegation from Russia to Andhra Pradesh. Russian companies had huge expertise and latest technologies in the area of infrastructure development, gas, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, agricultural research, mining and metallurgy.

"They are not just internationally competitive but also offer best conditions for long-term cooperation," he said.

With specific reference to Andhra Pradesh, he said the Russian infrastructure companies could help in strengthening transport network and establishing mass rapid transport system.

While reminding cordial Indo-Russian relations of yesteryears, he blamed it on the young breed of businessmen for undermining and ignoring the time-tested relations of the older generations.

They (younger businessmen) misinterpreted free market as some thing free from any morality or responsibility. "It took a few years before these new business leader realised the importance of re-establishing the ties," he said.

Russia has announced that a new visa regime would be announced by the year-end, making the procedure simpler for businessmen.

Announcing this here on Wednesday, Mr Trubnikov said a final draft of agreement in this regard was under way. He was confident that the agreement would be ready by December.

Responding to a question on easing visa regime, he said this had been an old problem and discussed at high level. Another agreement on "readmission" too was in the cards.

Source: The Business Line