German investments in Russia have not declined amid the crisis of 2009 - Klaus Mangold – 26.10.2009
German investments in Russia have not declined amid the crisis of 2009 and none of the German enterprises operating in Russia has been closed, Klaus Mangold, Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, said on Wednesday.
“This year investments have remained at the last year level, and we expect the same in 2010,” Mangold told journalists after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s meeting with German businessmen on Wednesday. “All 6,000 German enterprises that came to Russia have stayed,” Mangold stressed.
The Russian prime minister also said during the meeting that German investments in the Russian economy had increased by 36 percent in the first four months of 2009.
In 2008, trade turnover between the two countries had exceeded 60 billion U.S. dollars.
According to Mangold, Russian and German business people currently work on joint projects for the development of infrastructure, the energy sector, a higher capacity of pipelines and an expansion of their network. “The German economy sees itself as a natural partner of Russia,” he stressed.
He reminded the audience that several months ago Germany approved a program for financing supplies of technologies to Russian enterprises worth 500 million euros. “The program is already implemented,” he said.
Putin, on his part, said relations between Russia and Germany “are very diversified, and this concerns all branches of production – agriculture, construction, car manufacturing and high technologies”. This means that people don’t lose jobs and new jobs are created amid the current crisis, both in Germany and in Russia, Putin stressed.
Representatives of leading German enterprises and companies also marked continuity in the economic and political sectors both in Russia and Germany.
“We believe in strategic partnership of the Russian and German economies. Cooperation continues, and continuity and succession are seen not only in the economic, but also in the political sphere,” Klaus Mangold said.
More analytics »
ENG
