"After several years of stagnation, the volume of mutual trade between Russia and Canada in 2003 increased almost two-fold and already in the six months of 2004 grew by another 20 percent from the same period the year before", the premier's press secretary Alexander Zharov quotes Fradkov as saying on results of his talks with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"All this creates good conditions for reaching a billion-dollar line in our trade turnover", Fradkov said.
He stressed that the recent cancelling of two antidumping limitations on the taking of Russian rolled steel to Canada is a demonstration that the Canadian side has made practical steps to remove the trade-economic barriers, Zharov said.
He added that the two prime ministers also considered bilateral investment and business cooperation.
"With the stable international financial-economic ratings against the background of a sustained GDP rate of growth, Russia is a potentially attractive country for investments", the press secretary cited the Russian premier as saying.
To Zharov, Mikhail Fradkov has welcomed the desire of the largest Canadian companies, such as the telecommunications Nortel Networks Co., gold-producing Barrick Gold and oil company Petro-Canada, to invest in the Russian economy.
