The minister will deliver a report before German entrepreneurs, telling them about the main aspects of Russian reforms and above all the current administrative reform, RIA Novosti was told in the Economic Development and Trade Ministry (MERT) the day before. The report will also deal in detail with Russo-German relations.
Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Yelena Danilova will also take part in the forum's work.
The Day of Russian Economy in Frankfurt am Main is being held for the fourth time. It was held thrice in 1997, 2001 and 2002. The forum is held under the patronage of the Frankfurt am Main mayor with the support of major German banks and German business interests concerned. Attending the forum are about 350 representatives of political and business circles of the two countries.
The main task which is being set by the organizers of the economic forum is to generate fresh impulses for deepening Russian-German trade and economic cooperation and developing investment coordination in different fields of economics of both countries.
Germany ranks first among the major investor countries working on the Russian market.
In 2003, the accumulated total volume of German investments in the Russian economy exceeded $11 billion, which accounts for about one-quarter of all accumulated foreign investments in Russia.
The scale of investment activity by Russian enterprises on the German market is, according to various estimates, up to 1 billion euros. In separate years the influx of Russian investments in the German economy reached considerable sums. In 2001, for example, it was around 4.5 billion euros.
At present there are about 2,500 firms in Russia, having German capital. Joint ventures are predominantly concerned with rendering commercial mediation, consulting and information services (about 50 per cent of all Russian-German joint ventures), financial transactions (15 per cent), while the other joint ventures are engaged in different spheres of the extractive and processing branches of industry.
In the context of development of investment cooperation, ever greater emphasis is being placed on economic coordination between partners at a regional level. Practically all Russian regions in the European part of the country and western Siberia are establishing partner-like ties with German regional states. Most activity is shown by the federal states of Northern Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Baden-Wurtemberg and Hessen.
