Putin Says Venezuela is One of Russia’s Most Promising Economic Partners

Text of report by corporate-owned Russian news agency Interfax

Moscow, 22 October: Venezuela is now one of the most promising partners for Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

“It is indeed one of the most promising countries from the point of view of how our joint work in the economic sphere is organized,” Putin said at a cabinet meeting on Monday [22 October].

For his part, Aleksandr Zhukov, co-chairman of the Russian- Venezuelan inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation [and deputy prime minister], has emphasized how promising the joint project in the energy sector are.

In particular, Zhukov said that “the construction of a trans- American pipeline from Venezuela to Brazil across the continent is a very promising project”. “Gazprom is already taking part in negotiations,” he said.

Business circles are showing interests in Venezuelan projects, in particular, in oil production and the development of gas fields, Zhukov added. “There are serious projects in the aluminium industry as well”, he said.

“The Venezuelans are interested in our investment and technologies,” Zhukov added.

There are also a number of plans regarding projects in machine- building, Zhukov said. In particular, KamAZ [lorry factory] intends to organize joint production with Venezuela.

Originally published by Interfax news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0958 22 Oct 07.

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