EUR 30 Million Russian-Finnish Investment Project Underway in Novgorod

A new investment project to the cost of EUR 30 million has begun its realisation in the Novgorod Region. In the town of Pestov a sawmill will be constructed, with a yearly production potential of around 200,000 cubic metres of coniferous materials. As the press-service of the administration of the Novgorod Region announced, today the President of the Finnish company UPM Kummene, Uka Niyemele, and the General Director of Novgorod Timber Manufacturers, Isaak Slutsker had a meeting with the Governor of the Novgorod Region, Mikhail Prusak, and gave him details about the beginnings of construction.

This is already the third joint investment project with Finns to be brought about on the territory of the Novgorod Region. The project is planned to be put in action at the end of 2003. Around 100 people will receive workspace on the new, modernised plant in Pestov. The Pestov sawmill will become the sixteenth plant working with Finnish capital on the territory of the Novgorod Region.

As M. Prusak remarked, cooperation with Finland in the Novgorod Region has developed successfully over the last 10 years. Novgorod Timber Manufacturers and UPM Kummene founded the first Russian-Finnish business in the Region, Chudovo-RVS, which is currently the region's largest exporter, contributing considerably to the regional budget on all levels. In the first quarter of this year, Chudovo-RVC produced more than 21,000 cubic metres of veneer, of which more than 15,000 were exported.