Viktor Khristenko states stagnation in Russian-Japanese economic relations

Russian deputy prime minister Viktor Khristenko believes that the Russian-Japanese trade and economic relations are now stagnated, he told journalists on Friday after meeting a delegation of Japanese industrialists.

Khristenko admitted that the unregulated delicate political issues between Russia and Japan could be the cause, but he is sure that restraining factors have initially been included in the bilateral economic relations.

First of all, the developments are affected by a very high degree of the state participation, he pointed out. "State guarantees are good for the beginning of relations, but they can hardly be a good basis for future developments based on interests of specific enterprises," Khristenko explained.

Yet now there is a certain process of leaving state guarantees behind and replacing them with more flexible tools, he added. Among those he named transition to crediting trade and economic operations by commercial banks, expansion of insurance operations, the state's participation in guaranteeing noncommercial risks.

The Japanese industrialists came to Moscow after visiting Vladivostok and Irkutsk, the deputy prime minister said. Thus, they had an opportunity to see and assess the changes in the Russian economy of the last 2 years, not only in the centre, but also in East Siberia and Far East, he believes.

The parties exchanged opinions on the reform in the Russian economy, and the Japanese representatives also briefed Khristenko on the changes in their country's economy.