Russia and Spain strengthen economic ties
Russian President Medvedev and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero signed around €800 million worth of deals covering railways, oil and investment at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
President Dmitry Medvedev said the current level of bilateral Russian – Spanish investment did not meet the two countries needs, and needed to be boosted."Trade turnover grew to over $7 billion last year, which is 40% more than in 2009, but it still did not reach the pre-crisis level, and therefore we should make some effort to bring it to a level of about $10 billion." Zapatero also noted that an important issue for Spain is atrade deficit of around €4 billion, mostly caused by oil and gas imports.Included in the range of agreements signed was a memorandum of cooperation between Russia’s Alliance Oil and Spain’s Repsol for a joint exploration and oil and gas extraction. Russian railways, RZD, and Talgo, a Spanish manufacturer of railway vehicles, agreed on joint development, production, delivery and technical servicing of railway rolling stock and infrastructure. Valery Serduykov, a governor of Leningrad region, and Maria Pilar Gonzalez Artola, General Manager, Gestamp Severstal Vsevolozhsk, signed a contract about governmental support for investment activity in the area. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexandre Zhukov and Miguel Sebastián Gascón, Spanish Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, signed a programme of cooperation in Russian modernization.
