Small and medium-sized enterprises of Finland and Russia to cooperate

An agreement on cooperation will be signed on Wednesday between the foreign policy department of Finland and the joint-stock company Finnvera. The aim of cooperation is to develop contacts between small and medium-sized enterprises of Finland and Russia.

The Finnish foreign ministry reports that within the framework of the agreement coordination will be carried out on the issue of earmarking means from the special state fund for the development of cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises on the conterminous territories.

Finnish experts believe that within the framework of the agreement Finnvera will help small and medium-sized enterprises to implement plans of production cooperation with Russian partners on Russian territory. The funds will be allocated, above all, for the realisation of the projects within the framework of the existing Russian-Finnish framework agreements in power engineering, environmental protection, forestry, food and processing industry, information technologies, metal working and light industry.

The first projects to receive subsidies are those situated on the conterminous territories as well as in the Russian regions which are part of the EU Northern Dimension programme.

In 2003, the foreign ministry of Finland will allocate 500,000 euros to support the Russian-Finnish projects of small and medium-sized business.