Russia wants to increase trade, commercial ties with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Russia considers Pakistan an important country of the region as it has great economic potential and wanted to increase bilateral trade and cooperation with Pakistan in diversified areas of economic activity. 

Strong bilateral trade and larger cooperation between Pakistan and Russia would bring prosperity and integrity to the region.

Yury M Kozlov Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in Pakistan at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) said, “Russia eyes Pakistan as a significant market and many Russian investors are taking interest to explore Pakistan for joint ventures and investment”. 

He said previously Russia participated in some big projects in Pakistan including Pakistan Steel Mills and now there was a renewed interest to enhance trade and economic ties with Pakistan in multiple areas. 

Kozlov said negotiations are in process with Pakistan for energy projects and cooperation in science and technology. He said a Russian company has already offered $1 billion financial and technical assistance for rehabilitation and upgradation of Pakistan Steel Mills. He said Russia was also ready to implement 500-600 megawatts coal-fired thermal power projects near Muzaffargarh and Jamshoro and also to modernise and convert some other power projects in Pakistan to coal. 

He briefed the local businessmen about the upcoming trade exhibitions in Russia and invited them to participate in these exhibitions for exploring new areas of business cooperation.

Zafar Bakhtawari President Islamabad Chamber said Pakistan was now focusing on Central Asia for trade and exports and developing strong economic relations with Russia was vital for tapping huge markets of this region. 

He said Pakistan was occupying a key economic location in the region and Russia should provide support to Pakistan to get the membership of Shanghai Cooperation organisation.

He said the bilateral trade of $542 million between the two countries was far less as Pakistan and Russia has the potential to take bilateral trade up to $4 billion for which serous efforts are required to be made by both sides. 

He said many Pakistani products including food, fruits and vegetables, livestock, leather products, surgical equipment and sports goods have the potential to meet Russian consumers’ needs and private sectors of both countries should be facilitated for direct contacts to tap all untapped areas of mutual cooperation. 

He stressed for direct air flights between Islamabad and Moscow and soft visa policy for promoting trade up to potential.

Russia is the third largest textile importing country of the world importing textile products of $20 billion annually and Russian textile importers should avail quality textile products of Pakistan, which are very competitive and affordable. a
He said the government in Pakistan was determined to undertake big infrastructure development projects including roads and railway network and invited Russian investors to take active part in these projects.

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Russia to build three new-generation ice-breakers for Northern Sea Route

Russia will float out a new-generation nuclear ice-breaker by 2017 with two more to follow in 2020 under a government program to ensure commercial shipping along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) – a 6,000-km Arctic waterway stretching from the Barents Sea in the west to the Bering Strait in the east. Russia is the only country with a nuclear-powered ice-breaking fleet. By the early 2020s, the NSR is expected to start recouping its cost.

The NSR is currently operational all year round. As cargo traffic increases, Russia will need more ice-breakers to cut the way for commercial ships. At present, Russia has five ice-breakers in its Arctic waters. But by 2021, four of them will be decommissioned.

In former Soviet times, the NSR was closed for military reasons. Now that foreign commercial ships are allowed to use it, more and more companies are seeing it as an effective transport corridor connecting Europe and Asia, said Yuri Shcherbanin from the Institute for Economic Forecasts of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"The distance between Northern Europe and Northeast Asia is much shorter than the traditional route through the Far East and the Suez Canal. Cargo transportation along the Northern Sea Route has grown considerably over the past two years. More than 45 commercial ships sailed through it last year, including a liquefied gas tanker that brought over 66,000 tons of LNG from a Statoil plant in Norway to Japan."
In 2012, The Norwegian-flagged Marika tanker shipped more than 65,000 tons of aviation fuel produced from Sakhalin oil from Korea to Finland.

Within a few years, Russia will start developing oil and gas deposits on its Arctic shelf. The Novatek company is launching the construction of the Sabetta port and an LNG refinery in the Gulf of Ob. Future LNG exports both to Europe and Asia will require more ice-breakers, Mikhail Babenko, a gas environmental policy coordinator at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), told the Voice of Russia.

"It’s absolutely evident that no diesel-powered ship can manage to sail the whole length of the NSR without refueling. A diesel-powered ship can’t cut its way through ice as efficiently as a nuclear ice-breaker. Another big advantage of nuclear ice-breakers is the absence of soot emissions."
New-generation ice-breakers will surpass their current analogues over a whole range of parameters, said Alexander Voznesenksy, Director of the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard.

"The new ice-breaker will have a draft of between 8.5 m and 10.5 m. Thanks to its unique design, it can be operated both at the Northern Sea Route and in the estuaries of Siberian rivers. Its width – 34 m – means that it can cut the way for tankers with a dead weight of 100,000 tons."

New-generation ice-breakers will be equipped with advanced security and navigation systems.

Source: http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_25/Russia-to-build-three-new-generation-ice-breakers-for-Northern-Sea-Route-9892/

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