FICCI: Measures to boost Indo-Russia trade

NEW DELHI: Industry body FICCI has suggested a three-pronged strategy, including setting up an institutional mechanism to sort financial problems faced by exporters in order to boost Indo-Russia trade and investment and take it to five billion dollars in the next five years.

The strategy also involves using unutilised money in the rupee-rouble debt agreement to fund investments in india and leveraging it to attract greater interface between Russian and Indian companies, the chamber said in a release here.

Such measures would go a long way in doubling Indo-Russian trade to 5 billion dollars in the next five years from the trade turnover of 2.72 billion dollars recorded in 2005-06, it said.

The sectors where India can attract investments from russia include metallurgy (steel, aluminium), real estate, pharmaceuticals, power, infrastructure (metro projects in different Indian cities) and ports. Likewise, the sectors that look promising for investments in Russia include pharmaceuticals, tea and tobacco.

The chamber has suggested that issues like reducing credit risk, strengthening russia's banking sector, liberalising currency transactions, streamlining tax policy and enhancing presence of indian banks in russian markets need to be addressed to boost bilateral trade and investment cooperation.