The Sixth Russian Economic Forum Opens in London - 2 April, 2003

Over 1,500 representatives of the business quarters from Russia, Western and other countries will take part in the Sixth Russian Economic (REF) which opens on Wednesday in London.

As was reported by the founder and executive director of the forum, Sergei Kolushev, this great attention to the forum, which will last till April 4, is to be explained by quite concrete causes.

The main one of them is the growing interest of the foreign business quarters in the development of cooperation with the Russian business in conditions when a political stability remains in Russia, when the economy demonstrates growth and when on the whole the country is gradually advancing along the road of reforms in all spheres of life.

One of the confirmations of the fact that the Russian business is regarded in the West as a serious and reliable partner is the strategic decision recently taken by the British Petroleum corporation to invest 6.75 billion dollars in the Russian economy, pointed out Sergei Kolushev.

He said that the heads of practically all the 200 leading corporations, companies and credit and financial establishments would arrive to the forum from Russia.

It is expected that numerous Western businessmen, in particular from Great Britain, the United States, Germany and France, will also attend the economic forum. For the first time representatives of the oil companies from the Arab countries - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran - have expressed their desire to come to the forum.

According to the director of the forum, Simon Joseph, one of the important themes for discussion at the forum will be corporate management in Russia. The theme connected with the corporate culture, said he, is interesting for all forum participants - both Russian and Western, because all have unsolved problems in this sphere.

One more theme of no less interest will be energy, as connected with the situation in the Russian Fuel and Energy Complex and its possibilities for investing.

As was stated by the president of the group of companies Peace onto Your Home, Vladlen Gotsiridze, who took part in the REF more than once, the forum in the British capital is a good platform for establishing business contacts and for holding concrete negotiations on practical questions of cooperation between the Russian and Western financial and business quarters.

In the opinion of Vladlen Gotsiridze, the fact that the Western investors have started of late to more actively invest into concrete projects in Russia testifies to the improvement of the investment climate in this country.