US Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Alan P. Larson stated this in his speech before the participants in the 8th annual US-Russian investment symposium.
According to him, in the first half of this year US-Russian foreign trade amounted to $4 billion, while the sum total of the US direct investments in Russia's economy has grown to $6 billion over the past few years.
The growth rate of Russian GDP at the level of 6% a year during the past five years is a very successful story, Mr. Larson emphasized.
He added that Russian Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin whom he met during the recent G-8 meeting was the happiest of all the Finance Ministers of the G-8 thanks to the stable growth of the collection of taxes, the very sizeable growth of the economy, and headway of the economic reforms.
As Mr. Larson said, the economic successes of Russia make it an attractive business partner specifically in the energy sphere.
The role of Russia as a supplier of energy when the oil prices have risen to $52 for a barrel rouses an immense interest in the USA and other countries of the West, Alan P. Larson noted.
