French companies are interested in fostering cooperation with Russian regions, which, in turn, aim to enter foreign markets, Russia's trade representative in France, Mikhail Makarov, told Sputnik, adding that Russian businesses have already begun actively coming to France and organizing avenues of future cooperation
PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2019) French companies are interested in fostering cooperation with Russian regions, which, in turn, aim to enter foreign markets, Russia's trade representative in France, Mikhail Makarov, told Sputnik, adding that Russian businesses have already begun actively coming to France and organizing avenues of future cooperation.
In August, the trade envoy said that French businesses were among the largest foreign partners in the Russian market, with thousands employed by French firms. Moreover, more than 600 Russian companies from the food, agricultural, pharmaceutical and mechanical engineering industries, among others, operate with French capital.
"Our French partners demonstrate a high motivation to establish contacts directly with Russian regions, which, in turn, seek to directly access foreign markets," Makarov said.
He detailed how a number of business-missions comprising delegations from the city of Moscow; the Moscow, Rostov and Ulyanovsk regions; and the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan had recently been organized with the help of the Russian Trade Representation in France. Similar missions from the Ulyanovsk Region and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area are scheduled to travel to France this month, he said, and more will follow at the start of the new year.
He also said that in June, during talks in France's northern port city of Le Havre, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev and his French counterpart, Edouard Philippe, had agreed to hold a Russia-France Cross-Year of inter-regional cooperation in 2021.
The Russian trade representative went on to say that there had been significant progress in the development of bilateral cooperation and that his country was interested in establishing the Russian-French commission on cooperation between territorial entities.
Back in June, Deputy Chief of the Russian Government Staff Sergei Prikhodko said that despite the deterioration in Russia's economic and political relations with the West over the 2014 crisis in Ukraine and Crimea's decision to rejoin Russia, France was still deeply interested in Russia's national projects, as evidenced by the regular attendance of French companies at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
