The Ministry of Trade and Services stated today that a Serbian business delegation is visiting the Kaluga region in Russia and over the next two days it will meet with Kaluga officials and businesspeople.

The statement specifies that the delegation is led by Minister of Trade and Services Slobodan Milosavljevic and President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce Milos Bugarin.

The goal of the visit is to increase trade volume, expand the assortment of products and establish new forms of cooperation in order to create possibilities for investment and stimulate cooperation among SMEs.

Milosavljevic, Bugarin, Serbian Ambassador to Russia Jelica Kurjak and 20 representatives from Serbian companies will attend a roundtable discussion tomorrow and meet with Governor of the Kaluga region Alexei Artamonov, President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Malisev Alexander Nikolayevich and a number of Russian businesspeople and managers.

The Serbian delegation comprises representatives from Aleva, Amiga, Ratko Mitrovic Construction Company, Tigar and Galenika, who are mainly interested in strategic partners, joint production and the transfer of technologies.

Serbia is the only country with which Russia has signed a free trade agreement. Starting from 1 July this year a customs agreement between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will come into force, which implies the creation of a market of around 200 million consumers.

Last month at the meeting between Bugarin and President of the Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce Yevgeny Primakov it was concluded that it is necessary to improve Serbia’s cooperation with Russian regions.

The Kaluga region was also mentioned along with the Krasnodar, Moscow, Kursk and Samara regions. It is situated in a central and well-developed part of Russia and its largest partners are Germany, Italy, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, China and Japan.

The Kaluga region has a little over one million inhabitants and last year its foreign trade stood at $4.5 billion. The capital of Kaluga is around 200 kilometres from Moscow, the statement adds.