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President Türk visits St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg, 18.11.2010  |  press release


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President Dr Danilo Türk attends the Russian-Slovenian business conference (Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA)On the third day of his official visit to the Russian Federation, President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr Danilo Türk visited St. Petersburg, where he attended the opening of the Russian-Slovenian business conference. In his address to the Russian and Slovenian businessmen, the President stressed the importance of the Declaration on Partnership for Modernisation, which was signed yesterday and which will contribute to strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries. He also supported the liberalisation of the EU's visa regime in relation to Russia, which would facilitate communication among people and their business cooperation.

The President called for an expansion of existing business relationships in areas such as telecommunications, the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare. Economic cooperation between the two countries could also be expanded into other areas, among which the President in particular emphasised the automobile industry, and highlighted health spa tourism as a particularly promising economic activity.

President Dr Danilo Türk meets with St. Petersburg's Mayor and Governor, Valentina Matviyenko (Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA)President Türk then met the St. Petersburg Mayor and Governor, Valentina Matviyenko. The Slovenian President and Mayor Matviyenko focused on current economic cooperation between the two countries and expressed great optimism in relation to the future development of this cooperation. Although the absolute volume of trade between Slovenia and St. Petersburg is not high, they highlighted the positive trend in this area, since the volume of trade in the first half of this year increased by 66 per cent.

Mayor and Governor Matviyenko highlighted the shipbuilding, automobile and pharmaceutical industries as potentials for the development of economic cooperation with Slovenia. Both leaders also believe that there is great potential for cooperation in the areas of education, tourism and healthcare. They agreed that the visit by a large Slovenian business delegation would greatly contribute to the enhancement of economic cooperation. President Türk gave the assurance that he would also personally endeavour to promote relations between Slovenia and St. Petersburg.

Darja Radić, Minister of the Economy of the Republic of Slovenia and Valery Serdyukov, Governor of the Leningrad Region sign a Memorandum of Cooperation in the presence of Slovenian President Danilo Türk (Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA)Later during his visit, President Türk met with Valery Serdyukov, Governor of the Leningrad Region. After their talks, the Slovene Minister of the Economy, Darja Radić, and the Governor of the Leningrad Region, Valery Serdyukov, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Leningrad Region, Russian Federation, and representatives of the Iskratel Group and OAO Severo-Zapadniy Telekom signed a cooperation agreement between the two companies.

Governor Serdyukov stressed that the Memorandum included guidelines for stimulating investments and economic cooperation in various areas, among which he mentioned light industry, including the leather industry, telecommunications, logistics and infrastructural development. Moreover, the Memorandum would also promote the development of tourism and cultural links between Slovenia and the Leningrad Region.

President Türk highlighted the very well developed cooperation in telecommunications and singled out logistics and the automobile industry as potential fields for future development. In the area of tourism, he also mentioned the rapidly developing health spa tourism, in addition to coastal and winter tourism.
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