Russia waits for real investment cooperation

[Salman]

KARACHI: Russia has reaffirmed its willingness to boost economic relations with Pakistan on the 65th diplomatic relations anniversary, and emphasised the need for 'real investment cooperation between the two countries'.

“We should sincerely confess that due to the particular well-known reasons there is no real investment cooperation between our countries so far. Both Russian and Pakistani sides make efforts to solve the problems at the earliest”, said the Deputy Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in Pakistan, Alexey Strekalov while speaking at a press conference held at the Karachi Press Club here on Thursday.

Flanked by Russian Consulate General in Karachi Andrey V Demidov, and Director Cultural Affairs Vitaliy Glinkin he said the two countries should further develop trade and economic cooperation.

According to him, the year of 2012 proved again that the growth in trade between our two countries continued. We achieved a 14 percent growth rate amounting to 542 million dollars that included exports of 210 million dollars and 332 million dollars in imports.

Top export was of ferrous materials and products to Pakistan; second place was shipping fertilisers, and then export of newsprint and paperboard.

Similarly, he added, Russia imported food commodities worth $1,111 million from Pakistan, $789 million textile goods, and $528 million chemical fibre and filaments last year. "The trend seems to be good and rather optimistic, but we all realise that the level of mutual trade does not correspond to the real potential of our two countries," Alexey added. Russian Consul General Andrey supported the submissions made by his trade representative and said that both the countries have only signed memorandum of understandings (MOUs) and they should go beyond those now.