IRINA BABYUK DISCUSSED THE PROSPECTS OF IMPLEMENTING JOINT INVESTMENT PROJECTS WITH THE SWEDISH BUSINESS COMMUNITY
On 13 June, 2013, a business lunch took place at the Kingdom of Sweden Consulate. This was attended by Irina Babyuk, chairman of the St Petersburg Investments Committee, Jan Nurberg, General Consul of Sweden, and representatives of the Swedish business community.
The meeting touched on the prospects of investment partnership between St Petersburg and Sweden as well as opportunities for cooperation on investments in industries where Sweden is a European leader, such as machine-building, raw materials processing, shipbuilding, and information technologies. The businessmen noted that Sweden does not fully know the investment potential of St Petersburg. Irina Babyuk pointed out that such meetings enable the Swedish companies to resolve this problem and establish a constructive dialogue for developing the investment partnership of the regions. The head of the Committee briefed in detail on the “single window” system, noted the efficiency of the Investments Council supervised by St Petersburg governor and urged the Swedish businessmen to participate in further meetings at which the investors could present their projects.
Representatives of the Swedish business expressed an interest in taking up some projects in waste recycling, information technologies and culture. In particular, they were interested in the possibility of participating in public and private partnerships implementing creative cluster projects.
In the course of the meeting the company officials pointed out the importance of measures taken by the Committee in creating special economic zones. Based on results of the business lunch, the parties agreed to hold regular meetings for implementing new investment projects in St Petersburg.
“Our task today is to develop a well functioning mechanism of cooperation with the potential investors, which will help us implement high quality projects in the shortest possible time,” commented head of the Investments Committee Irina Babyuk.
Extra data:
Since 2009, Sweden has invariably been among top ten foreign investors in St Petersburg’s economy. Based on the data for the first quarter of the current year, the Swedish investments amounted to US$ 115.1 million.