RF, Swiss presids to take part in cement plant opening in Kolomna

MOSCOW, July 13 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and
President of Switzerland Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is in Russia on a
working visit, on Wednesday will attend an opening ceremony of the
renovated Shchurovsky Cement plant in Kolomna outside Moscow.
This company belongs to the Swiss group Holcim. About 500 million
euros was invested in the modernisation of the facility.
The interagency Declaration on cooperation for the economy
modernisation will also be signed in the presence of the two leaders. The
draft document was prepared based on the Action Plan on Economic
Cooperation between the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Swiss
Economics Ministry for 2011-2013, which was signed during the previous
Russian-Swiss summit in Sochi on August 26, 2010. The document was signed
by RF Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina and Swiss Economics
Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann.
Shchurovsky Cement is Russia's first cement factory, founded in 1870
by German national Emil Lipgart. The plant sells its products in Russia
and CIS countries. In 2007 the plant launched a major modernisation
process that was aimed at transferring the production to a modern, dry
process. The upgrading allowed the enterprise to meet the latest
requirements for all key indicators: environmental safety, economical use
of natural resources, more efficient use of all forms of energy, an
innovative concept and technical support, as well as the minimum risk of
work injuries.
Shchurovsky Cement is the only Russian producer of white cement. The
plant's products have high quality characteristics that allow their use
for the production of concrete and reinforced concrete monolithic
structures, precast concrete, as well as the use in all types of civil and
industrial construction.
The Moscow authorities pointed to the stable upward dynamics in the
Russian-Swiss relations and a high level of the political dialog. The
presidents of the two countries had held regular contacts in the past
years. In particular, Calmy-Rey's visit to Russia is the second one after
her visit of 2007. In September 2009, Medvedev paid first-ever official
visit to Switzerland.
Switzerland considers Russia as an important partner. In the effective
foreign political concept of the country, Russia plays an important role
as one of the most important countries exerting influence on the European
stability, the Kremlin press service said earlier.
Switzerland is one of Russia's stable trade partners. In 2010, trade
turnover went up by 36.2 percent as compared to 2009, and reached 11.1
billion U.S. dollars, the press service noted. In January-April 2011,
bilateral trade increased by 26.6 percent, versus the same period of 2010,
while allows the sides to negotiate prospects for the regaining of the
pre-crisis indicators of trade, it said.
Russia mainly exports to Switzerland energy resources, non-ferrous
metals, precious metals and gems, while importing pharmaceutical goods,
machines, electro-technical products, optical and measuring instruments
and equipment, and watches.
In spite of the overall decline of the investment activity of Swiss
companies abroad, in 2010, Russia managed to draw extra 4.7 billion U.S.
dollars of Switzerland's investments in the country's economy. All in all,
Russia accumulated about 5.6 billion U.S. dollars of Swiss investments by
the end of 2010.
More than 600 companies with the participation of Swiss capital are
registered in Russia. Among the biggest Swiss investors operating in
Russia are Nestle (food industry), Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) (engaged in the
production of equipment for industry, construction and public utilities),
as well as Schindler (elevator and escalator maker).
Among the biggest joint projects with the participation of Swiss
companies is the Novartis Company's plan to build a pharmaceutical
facility in the St. Petersburg Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Russia's accumulated investments on the market of Switzerland are
estimated at 7.8 billion U.S. dollars. Renova Group is Russia's biggest
investor in the economy of Switzerland. Its total investments exceed three
billion U.S. dollars. Currently, Renova is the biggest investor of such
companies as Oerlikon (innovations in the spheres of solar energy, space
exploration, laser technologies, e-data storage units, and so on) and
Sulzer (production of high-tech equipment for the energy, metallurgical
and pulp-and-paper industries).
The two presidents will also discuss humanitarian cooperation.
Starting from February 1, 2011, the Russian-Swiss agreement on easier visa
regime and the agreement on readmission become effective, which is an
important step in the development of bilateral relations. Those important
agreements opened new possibilities for closer humanitarian contacts and
created a solid basis for the counteraction to illegal migration.
This year in the Russian-Swiss relations is full of cultural events.
On February 10, 2011, Russian Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev in the
presence of the president's wife, Svetlana Medvedev, opened the Festival
of Russia's Culture in Switzerland.