Japanese Experts Say: Russia Is Becoming Market Economy Country

Russia is becoming a "normal country" with a market economy; political stabilisation in it and improvements in the economy are attracting the growing attention of foreign investors, pointed out Japanese experts. "A growth on the basis of an ordinary market economy is becoming a reality in Russia, and this makes up a principled importance," said Syunsuka Nakagawara, an expert in the Russian economy, an official from the Mitsui Bussan Japanese firm. "In the past few years we have been witnessing a political stabilisation in Russia, changes for the better in the tax sphere and the improvement in the economic indices. All this taken together cannot but attract the attention of foreign investors," said Minoru Usui, an expert on Russia and department chief in the NEC international marketing corporation. His colleague Kango Saito, chief of the department supervising Russia, in particular, said that "the investment climate in Russia today is much better than it was several years ago, though it is too early to speak about the possibility of building plants by foreign investors in Russia." The experts express regret that Japanese companies seriously lag behind American and European corporations in the amount of investments in Russia. "Next year it is necessary to find new approaches in principle to the economic cooperation with Russia, to shift the accent from trade to active penetration into the internal Russian market and to make investments," said Syunsuka Nakagawara. He emphasised that his corporation intended to act precisely in this direction.