Prominent German Expert On Cooperation Between Germany And Russia

The present level of economic cooperation between Germany and Russia awaits "realistic rather than emotional assessments" from experts of both countries, deputy the chief manager of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce Jorg Schlogel told RIA Novosti in connection with the presentation in the German capital on Thursday evening of the second book of the collection "Economic Partners in Europe: Russia and Germany". Schlogel believes that one of the merits of the book is that it represents the economic potential of several major Russian regions -- the Altai Territory (southern Siberia), the Rostov (southern Russia) region, Nizhny Novgorod (the Volga Area), the Moscow and Leningrad regions. At the same time he is of the opinion that the authors of some articles published in the collection "could not evade extremes, and fell into euphoria when they described how easy and simply one may run business in Russia, other authors, on the contrary are pessimistic and say that no positive changes in the development of structural reforms take place." The expert insists on the need to have "realistic estimates." According to him "the improvement of the general business-investment climate in Russia is evident, although the banking, tax and customs mechanisms have not been completely streamlined, which hampers the development of partnership in the small and medium-sized business." The next book of the series Economic Partners in Europe: Russia and Germany, the work on which has already begun, will be devoted precisely to the partnership between the Russian Federation and Germany in small and medium-sized business, deputy head of the Russian trade and economic bureau in Germany! Vitaly Shmelkov told RIA Novosti. He pointed out that last year the level of trade turnover between the two countries reached a record figure over the past years

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