Spanish Business People Interested In Large-scale Russian Projects

Spain has displayed great interest in Russia's proposals for Spanish business people to make investments in the Russian economy to implement large-scale projects. Russian Vice-Premier Viktor Khristenko gave his Spanish colleague Rodrigo Rato, who is in charge of economic issues, a list of 23 specific projects worth $2 billion. The largest project in the list is the construction of a power complex in Novosibirsk (Western Siberia) to become one of the main electricity generating facilities in Russia. Spanish businesses are also offered to participate in the $293 million modernisation of the Sakhalin hydroelectric power plant (the Russian Far East). The joint production of a new Kamov helicopter in Buryatia may win, according to preliminary estimates, a 60 per cent share of the European market. The Russian proposals stress that the experience of such economic cooperation is already yielding positive results. Thus the Spanish company Talgo has agreed on producing for Russia high-speed trains and the systems of automatic wheel pair switch from the Russian rail to the European one. The ship-building company Astilleros de Huelva will build ships in Russia and Spain. In the opinion of the Spanish press, the forthcoming visit to Russia by chairman of the Spanish government Jose Maria Aznar will give a new impetus to the development of bilateral economic relations. (fed/lio)