Japan`s investments in RF`s economy in Jan-Jun exceed $8 bln.

TOKYO, November 12 (Itar-Tass) -- The volume of accumulated Japanese
investments in the Russian economy over the first half of 2010 amounted to
8.6 billion dollars, Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira
Nabiullina said at the opening ceremony of the fourth Russian-Japanese
investment forum which began its work in Tokyo on Friday.
In her opening address, Nabiullina said that cooperation of Russia and
Japan in the sphere of investments "has seriously advanced in recent years
despite the negative influence of the global crisis." As the minister
said, Moscow comes out in favour of active cooperation with Japanese
companies in the fields of auto and aircraft industry, ship-building,
agriculture and atomic energy, as well as in the sphere of innovations.
Nabiulllina stressed that Russia hopes to adopt Japan's experience of
commercialization of innovation technologies.
Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan Tadahiro
Matushita, who heads the Japanese delegation at the forum, has also highly
assessed the development of Russian-Japanese investment cooperation. At
the same time, he pointed to the fact that the main part of Japan's export
to Russia comprises cars, while the bigger part of Russia's export to
Japan includes gas, oil and coal. According to Matushita, Tokyo "is
interested in diversifying investments, in particular with account of
Russia's interests to reduce its economy's dependence on raw materials."
Among the forum participants are auto giants Toyota and Komatsu,
producers of electric appliances Toshiba and Hitachi, as well as the
biggest financial groups of the country Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui
and Mizuho. On the part of Russia, governors of the Kaluga and Khabarovsk
Regions, the Primorsky Territory, representatives of the state agencies
and such companies Gazprom, Aeroflot, RZD, VTB, AvtoVAZ and others take
part in the forum.
The forum participants discuss economic strategies of Russia and
Japan, as well as prospects for further contacts between the two countries
in the given sphere. Within the framework of the meeting, round-table
meetings on issues of cooperation in the car industry and in the field of
high technologies, including "green" ones, are held. Besides, a number of
investment agreements will be signed at the forum.
According to statistics, the volume of trade between Russia and Japan
in January-September 2010 almost doubled in comparison with the same
period of 2009 and amounted to over 1.543 trillion yens (approximately
18.8 billion dollars).
-0-ast