MOSCOW, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russian asset management company Renova and German engineering and electronics giant Siemens said in a joint news release Wednesday they have signed a 450 million euro agreement to cooperate on infrastructure projects in Russia.
President Vladimir Putin is currently on a two-day visit to Germany, where bilateral trade and energy joint ventures are high on the agenda, including a pipeline that will ensure direct natural gas deliveries to Germany from Russia.
Germany is Russia's leading European trading partner, accounting for 10% of Russia's foreign trade.
On Tuesday, Putin said Russian-German trade topped $20 billion in the first quarter of 2006, and could reach $40 billion by the end of the year.
Renova-Siemens projects will deal primarily with the production and distribution of energy, as well as with telecommunications technologies and airport upgrading, their release said.
The Russian group's chief executive, Viktor Vekselberg, said: "Siemens' technological know-how and Renova's regional expertise will complement each other perfectly in infrastructure projects." He also said that collaborative projects between the companies will enable Russia to grow stronger technologically.
Rudi Lamprecht, a member of the Siemens AG managing board, said that by signing the agreement his company made a strategic commitment to sharing technological expertise with Russia so that the country could modernize its energy sector and ensure steady energy supplies to the regions.
Renova has assets in sectors such as oil, chemicals, machinery, mineral resources, construction, finances, housing and utilities. It is a major shareholder in the Russian-British petroleum joint venture TNK-BP and the aluminum company Sual, which on Monday announced a merger with Russia's Rusal and Switzerland's Glencore to create the world's largest producer.
