Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Azer Talibov and Minister of Economy and Energy of the FRG Brigitte Tsipris took part in a business lunch with businessmen of Russia and Germany within the framework of the Petersburg Dialogue Forum.
Azer Talibov spoke about the situation in the Russian economy and the priorities of economic policy for the near future, including improving the investment climate, interaction with the EU on the economic agenda in general.
"With no country in the world we have such an intense bilateral agenda as with Germany," said the Deputy Minister. He noted the positive trends in Russian-German trade and economic relations: bilateral trade increased by 22% (to $ 35.2 billion) in three quarters of 2017. At the same time, in physical terms, Russian-German trade has been growing continuously since 2009. "I want to stress once again that we are ready to build up trade and economic cooperation with Germany in all areas," he added.
According to Azer Talibov, German investors remain interested in the Russian market. In the first quarter of 2017, 312 million dollars of direct investments were received. In total, over 5,000 enterprises with the participation of German capital, whose turnover exceeds $ 50 billion, operate in Russia, and the number of Russians employed in them is about 270 thousand people.
One of the central themes of the discussion was the expansion of cooperation in the field of digital economy and localization of production. "We provide foreign entrepreneurs with a national regime and access to most state support measures, subject to certain conditions. The key is the localization of production facilities in Russia, "the head of the Russian delegation said.
On the sidelines of the event, negotiations were also held with the Executive Director of the Eastern Committee, Michael Harms, during which they discussed further cooperation in the field of small and medium-sized businesses, the digital economy and expanding cooperation with the REC and the Skolkovo Foundation.