Finance

Finance

French investments top $10 bln in Russia

02 March 2010 12:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. President Dmitry Medvedev urged French investors to help modernise the Russian economy Tuesday as the two countries’ build major new energy, transport and even military partnerships.

"It is impossible to imagine relations between Russia and France without economic ties," he said at the French employers’ association MEDEF, calling for Russian and French firms to buy stakes in one another.

According to Medvedev’s chief of staff, Sergei Naryshkin, French investment in Russia has topped 10 billion dollars and trade between Russia and France has increased by 25 percent per year since 2006.

Medvedev said that this makes France a bigger investor in Russia than the United States, and reflects Moscow’s policy of closer European cooperation.

French engineering firm Alstom is to take a 25 percent stake in Russia’s train parts maker Transmashholding for 75 million dollars (55 million euros) and thus play a role in modernizing Russia’s huge and creaking rail network.