'India emerges key investor in Russia'

Moscow, May 28 : India's investment in Russia accounted for 1.5 billion dollars (17 per cent) out of the 8.8 billion dollars foreign investments in the country and over 70 per cent of it's FDI, in the first quarter of 2006, the Rosstat (the Russian Statistics Committee) said in a report.

In the first quarter of this year, the key investors in Russian economy, were India, Cyprus and Netherlands followed by Germany, Britain, Luxemburg, Sweden and the US, the report said.

They accounted for 80 per cent of total investments in the Russian economy and France's investment in Russia was 15 times less than India.

India and Luxemburg ranked first in investments in extraction of minerals. Netherlands and Japan took the lead in investments in the agricultural sector. India, Cyprus, Netherlands and Luxemburg actively invested in the real estate sector.

This is for the first time that India has emerged as the key foreign investor in Russia.

The report said foreign capital in Russia still showed preferences to traditional spheres, mainly in extraction and processing of minerals as well as for trade.

According to the report, at the end of March, foreign capital in Russia amounted to about 114 billion dollars which was almost one-third more as compared with March 2005.

UNI