King Of Sweden Attends Meeting Of Russian And Swedish Industrialists And Entrepreneurs

Moscow has hosted a round table of industrialists and entrepreneurs of Russia and Sweden which was attended by King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf. The meeting was also attended by executive secretary of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs /RUIE/ Igor Yurgens, Federation of Swedish Industries President Soren Gyll, board chairman of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Chubais, Director General of the United Machine-Building Plants Kakha Bendukidze and board chairman of the AFK Sistema /System/ company Vladimir Yevtushenkov. According to the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs /RUIE/, over the past two years trade between Russia and Sweden has come to revive -- both Russian exports and Swedish imports have increased. In 2000 trade turnover between Russia and Sweden exceeded 1,400 million dollars. Raw materials prevail in Russian export to Sweden making 77 percent of all Russian exports. Russia mostly imports from Sweden machines and equipment /over 50 percent/. In late 2000 Swedish investment in Russian economy made some 560 million dollars, or 2 percent of the total volume of foreign investment in Russian economy. Speaking at the round table, Mr Gyll indicated that customs registration remained the most topical problem of trade. He also expressed Sweden's interest in forming a free trade zone in the Kaliningrad region, Russia's western enclave. Executive Secretary of the RUIE Yurgens named several projects of Swedish business in Russia. They include: the IKEA company's building department stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg /with a total of 200-300 million dollars in investment/, the reconstruction of the Sheremetyevo-2 airport by the Scanska concern /1 billion dollars/, Electrolux's setting up the production of washing machines in the Nizhni Novgorod region /80 million dollars/, the Volvo concern's assembling trucks and Scania's building a bus-making plant /7 million dollars/.