Portugal Seeks to Expand Trade With Russia, Neighboring Markets

Portugal seeks to expand trade with Russia and neighboring markets and establish Russian-Portuguese joint ventures in a number of economy sectors, Portugal’s Minister of Economy Manuel Caldeira Cabral told Sputnik on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — The minister added that both countries could enjoy benefits of such cooperation, with new markets opened up.

"There are a lot of opportunities in trade that are not fulfilled, both in services – like tourism and software, and in goods – agricultural and also sophisticated, like luxury goods… I think that Russian and Portuguese firms should do joint ventures. Not only in agriculture and luxury goods, but also in sectors like machinery, tools, software," Cabral said.

"We can be good partners to allow Russian firms to get into the South American markets and some of the African markets. I think Russian firms, in turn, can be the ideal partners not just to get to the Russian market, but also to the markets that are close to Russia and that all have very established links with Russia and where Portuguese firms are not very well established yet – Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and so on. Russia is a market with very good prospects of growth in the coming years," Cabral added.

Russia is a perspective market for luxury goods, and Portugal seeks to get access to it, in particular, by selling expensive shoes, Cabral said.

"Russia is a very interesting market for luxury goods, and Portuguese manufacturers specialize more in luxury goods. Today we are second exporters of expensive shoes in the world, just after Italy. We export shoes that are worn by Michelle Obama and all the stars of Hollywood. I think they can also have a chance on Russian women and Russian men of course," Cabral said.

SPIEF, held in Russia's second largest city between Thursday and Saturday, is a major global platform for communication between business representatives and the discussion of crucial economic issues. The Sputnik news agency is an official media partner of SPIEF.