Indo-Russian bilateral trade to cross USD 10 billion by 2010

Mumbai, Apr 17 (UNI) Even as bilateral trade between Russia and India is likely to reach 10 billion USD by 2010, the vast potential of their economic co-operation was not yet fully tapped, Ambassador of the Russian Federation in India, Viacheslav Trubnikov observed.

Addressing a business meet, organized by the All India Association of Industries (AIAI) in association with the World Trade Centre, Mumbai, yesterday, Mr Trubnikov said the potential needs to be actualised as Russia and India are two of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world and they do have mutual complementarities and ample opportunities for greater collaboration.

Bilateral trade between the two countries could reach only five billion USD last year, Mr Trubnikov pointed out.

Power generation, upstream and downstream oil and gas, mining and metallurgy, transport, infrastructure, information technology and electronics, civil aviation, biotechnology, automobile industry, space exploration and applied science are the areas in which bilateral trade can be further increased, he stated.

Governments of both the countries are doing their utmost to provide favourable conditions for enhancing bilateral co-operation, the Ambassador said, adding that one of the fundamental obstacles in expanding the economic linkages is lack of information that still influences many spheres of their potentially lucrative collaboration.

Mr Trubnikov said last year India and Russia celebrated the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations and this year has been declared the Year of Russia in India. The year 2009 will be organised as the Year of India in Russia. Apart from many cultural functions, the programme of both year-long festivals include various exhibitions, fairs and conferences related to business and trade, he added.

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