Moscow. December 3, 2003. Industrialists from Russia and the European Union met in a roundtable format in Moscow on December 1 and 2. Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Chairman of Sistema JSFC’s Board of Directors, presided over a full-strength session meeting to discuss formation of industrial policy in Russia and the EU. The session was attended by Boris Aleshin, Vice Premier of the Russian Federation, Yuri Trutnev, member of the Presidium of the RF State Council and governor of the Perm oblast, and Roundtable co-chairmen Anatoly Chubais, Management Board Chairman of RAO UES of Russia, and Mr. Matti Vuoria, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fortum Corporation. Subject reports were presented by Mr. Didier Gambier, Executive Director of the International Science and Technology Center; Andrei Fursenko, acting Federal Minister of Industry, Science and Technology; Mr. David White, Director, DG Enterprise, European Commission; and Victor Danilov-Danilian, Director of the Water Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, among others. Russia’s accession to the WTO was discussed as a separate agenda item at the session. The Roundtable also provided a framework for a meeting of the working group on industrial cooperation between Russia and the EU, co-chaired by Vladimir Yevtushenkov, on the Russian side, and Mr. Didier Gambier, Executive Director of the International Science and Technology Center, on the EU side. The meeting held on December 1 wound up with adopting recommendations to the Russian Government and the European Commission to promote cooperation between industrialists in Russia and EU countries. The decisions of the Roundtable’s full-strength meeting and the working group session were formulated in a final document adopted by the Roundtable. Speaking about the forum’s decisions, Vladimir Yevtushenkov emphasized the importance of exchanges in experience and views for broad cooperation in trade and business and for efforts to build a common European economic environment. “We seek to utilize the European Union’s positive experience,” Mr. Yevtushenkov said, “to articulate Russia’s own industrial policy. Industrial cooperation is an element of that policy, and our concerted efforts are directed at absorbing in our practice the best of everything our counterparts in other countries have created and shown to be effective.” The Roundtable of industrialists in Russia and the European Union was established in 1997 at the initiative pf the two sides’ business communities with assistance and sponsorship of the Russian Federal Government and the Commission of the European Communities. By providing a forum for a dialog between the two business communities, the Roundtable encourages closer cooperation and broader business contacts between Russia and the EU, such as direct ties between industries and enterprises, and develops recommendations to the Russian Government and the European Commission on ways to improve the environment for the pursuit of business and investment in Russia and EU countries. Specialized working groups were set up within the Roundtable framework to deal with various aspects of cooperation. The Roundtable’s Moscow session on December 1 and 2, 2003, which was its fifth meeting, went over the more significant initiatives and aspects of cooperation between Russia and the European Union in such areas as industrial policy and investments, formation of a common European economic environment, Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and cooperation priorities in selected sectors, such as energy, transportation, telecommunications and information technologies, and much more. The forum was attended by officials of the Russian Government, the European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE), and a number of other associations. The previous Roundtable session was held in Turin, Italy, on February 15 and 16, 2002. *** For more detail, contact: Investor Relations Department Andrei Bliznyuk Tel: +7 095 730 1543 bliznyuk@sistema.ru Press Office Olga Pestereva Tel + 7 095 730 1705 pestereva@sistema.ru
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