Business Foreign investment in Moscow Region soars 30-fold in ten years

The volume of foreign investment in the Moscow Region has increased by more than 30 times over the past ten years and may reach $7 billion in 2011, Tigran Karakhanov, the region’s Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, told a delegation of Pakistani businessmen. Karakhanov added that the regional government expected the volume of foreign investment to reach $7 billion in 2011. Representatives of the Moscow Region and Pakistan agreed to expand trade cooperation, to channel additional investment into the region’s light industry and to establish warehouse facilities, as the region receives substantial consignments of goods from Pakistan. In January-June 2011, the trade turnover between the Moscow Region and Pakistan totaled $6.7 million. The 2010 mutual trade turnover was $17.9 million, or 52% more than in 2009. In 2009-2011, regional enterprises delivered power equipment, pumps, electric machinery and equipment and other products to Pakistan. In turn, in 2009-2011, the region received Pakistani vegetables, citrus fruit, cotton, clothing, medications, metalware and leather products, furniture, lighting equipment and optical devices.