German companies are set to take part in the second wave of privatisation in Russia, the Chairman of the Eastern Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, Klaus Mangold, said during Vladimir Putin's meeting with German businessmen yesterday: "We believe that the privatisation programme the government announced several weeks ago in Russia provides new opportunities to promote cooperation between Russia and Germany."
Earlier, while addressing a VTB Capital Investment Forum, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that the government would sell its stakes in banks, oil companies, telecoms and aviation in the next few years, "even going so far as to convert some state-owned corporations into joint stock companies after they had fulfilled their mission."
"We would like to propose particularly close cooperation in this sphere (privatisation - Gazeta)," Mangold responded.
In exchange for stakes in state-owned companies, the Germans have promised to provide technology. "This will lead to a transfer of technologies between Russian and German companies within joint enterprises," Mangold explained.
In the process of privatisation, the Germans are most interested in infrastructure, the energy sector, energy efficiency and expanding the existing network of pipelines. The joint Russian-German Nord Stream project, a gas pipeline from Vyborg to Greifswald bypassing Ukraine, is already underway.
Putin, for his part, vowed to support German companies in Russia. He pointed out that last year, Russian-German trade had surpassed $60 billion, and between January and April 2009, German investments in the Russian economy increased by 30%, even though overall trade dipped as a result of the crisis.
Putin praised the Germans for their impressive organisational skills: "Work is continuing quite actively and sometimes one gets the impression that you don't need our administrative structures at all! The German government has yet to be formed, but the work is still going on as if nothing is happening in the political sphere."
Just two days ago, the Russian Prime Minister attended the launching of full-cycle production at a Volkswagen plant in Kaluga and was highly pleased with the process.
Andrei Biryukov
