Brdo pri Kranju, 26 November (STA) – The Slovenian-Russian intergovernmental commission on trade, economic and science cooperation will meet at Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia on Wednesday to discuss bilateral economic cooperation and confirm a programme for the implementation of a memorandum on important projects. An investment conference and a panel are planned for Tuesday.
The ninth plenary of the commission, chaired by Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec and Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, is expected to focus on energy, IT, investment, transport, agriculture, tourism, regional and scientific cooperation.
The members of the commission are to examine the reasons for the deadlock in 12 out of 32 agreed projects and discuss possibilities for 28 new projects.
The session will be preceded on Tuesday by an investment conference, which will be opened by Erjavec and Nikiforov.
Organised by the Slovenian-Russian Business Council, the conference is to bring an analysis of the trends in Slovenian-Russian direct investments.
While Slovenia used to be a net exporter of capital to Russia, this has changed in recent years.
The participants will try to identify the main motives of Russian investors abroad, establish how successful they are and how they have experienced Slovenia. It will also look at potential new investments in Russia by Slovenian companies.
Similar topics will be discussed at Tuesday’s panel debate, entitled »Slovenian-Russian Investment: Motives, Orientations, Results« and mostly featuring representatives of the most important Slovenian companies that are active in Russia.
Trade between the two countries exceeded EUR 1.1bn last year, which is 28.3% more than in 2010. Slovenian exports to Russia reached EUR 747.7m, a 26.6% increase on 2010, while imports from Russia were at EUR 399.3m, up 31.5% on the year before.