UN To Co-operate With Russian Yukos Oil Company

A limited partnership agreement between the Russian YUKOS oil company and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) has been recently signed in New York. According to the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the agreement stipulates a joint search for co-operation opportunities between Russia, CIS member-states and their neighbouring states in such spheres as environment protection, education, introduction of computers, health care, support of small and medium business. At the same time, all co-operation projects will be co-ordinated with the governments of the countries involved. The YUKOS management hopes that the UNOPS will help it launch promising projects targeted at solving social problems of aborigines of Russian Northern regions, where the company is operating, primarily, in the Evenki national district. The UNOPS in its turn states its determination to use all international experience in the sphere of solving the aforementioned issues and to employ only qualified contractors. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, "without a doubt, the experience of the YUKOS and LUKOIL (a Russian oil company), which has been a UN partner for a while, deserve thorough discussion during the forthcoming "round table." The topic of the event, which will take place on November 19 in Moscow, is "Russian business and the UN."