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SBI, Russian fund to invest $2 bn in projects

Russian direct investment fund, a sovereign wealth fund, and State Bank of India will jointly invest up to $2 billion to promote trade and economic cooperation projects, the Russian fund said on Monday.

Russian direct investment fund (RDIF), a sovereign wealth fund, and State Bank of India will jointly invest up to $2 billion to promote trade and economic cooperation projects, the Russian fund said on Monday.

The agreement, under which the two sides would invest up to $1 billion each, came as Russian president Vladimir Putin visited India on Monday.

RDIF said the two firms will work together to facilitate access to long-term capital in Russia and India and promote mutual investments between the two countries.

The firms will invest in infrastructure development and facilities to extract and process natural resources, it added.

India and Russia also agreed to reach a $10-billion trade turnover in the next few years. The two sides 10 agreements in diverse areas.

Putin and Singh undertook an extensive review of bilateral cooperation, especially in the field of nuclear energy and discussed ways to expedite an agreement for nuclear reactor 3 and 4 at Kudankulam.

All key bilateral issues, including defence, space, trade and investment, science and technology, education, culture and tourism were discussed in the meeting which also witnessed Russians raising their concerns over the issue of Sistema.

However, sources said “the issue (Sistema) was discussed” and did not divulge any more details. Sistema, with investment of $3.1 billion, has 56.68 per cent stake in Shyam Sistema Teleservices (SSTL) whose 21 out of 22 licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2 as irregularities were found in their allocation. Russia, which has a stake of 17.14 per cent in the company, has since been expressing concern and pressing India to ensure protection of Sistema’s investment.

After his talks with Putin during the Russian leader’s brief visit of nearly 18 hours for the bilateral summit, Singh said, “We also discussed regional and global issues, on many of which there is a marked congruence in our approach.

“The development of our nuclear energy programme has been a key pillar of our strategic partnership,” the Prime Minister said while noting that construction of Unit 1 of the Kudankulam nuclear project was “now complete, and power generation will commence shortly”.

He also said India looks forward to the completion of Unit 2 next year. “Negotiations for the construction of Units 3 and 4 at Kudankulam have made good progress,” Singh said. According to the sources, the two countries expect to finalise the negotiations for 3 and 4 soon. “We expect that the implementation of our arrangements on the construction of new NPPs in India will begin in the nearest future,” Putin had said ahead of his visit.

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First published on: 25-12-2012 at 03:44 IST
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