Russian Economic Development Minister Advocates Expansion Of Russia-West Cooperation

Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref has stressed the need to expand cooperation between Russia and Western business circles to eliminate economic aftermath of the acts of terror in the USA. German Gref spelled out his opinion Thursday speaking before the participants in the 5th Russian annual investment symposium in Boston. Moreover, German pointed out to a direct dependence of Western countries' economic wealth on the reforms in Russia. According to him, Russian economic indicators show positive trends and the forecast for 2002 is optimistic as well. At the same time, the Russian minister noted that "if the U.S. economy continues to develop negatively, if the European economy falls, then Russia will fail to achieve great success." Gref emphasised that Russia will support U.S. efforts both to stabilise the political situation in the world and to continue developing the positive vector shaped in the U.S. economy over the past few years."