New Delhi, September 10, 2016 – The Gujarat delegation received overwhelming response in Russia with more than 50 companies and associations attending Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit Roadshow in St Petersburg and Moscow.

Led by Ms S Aparna, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, the delegation to Russia was represented by industry leaders like Amul, Suzlon, Reliance Industries, KHS Machinery Pvt Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd and Shell Hazira Pvt Ltd. The delegation met more than 50 Russian companies, institutes and associations in St Petersburg and Moscow.

The roadshows were organised in collaboration with the Russian Chamber of Commerce where the delegation highlighted some of the investor friendly policies, the perfect economic ecosystem and single window clearance procedures that Gujarat offers, making it one of the most sought after investment destinations globally. Due to these factors, Gujarat was also ranked number 1 in “Ease of Doing Business” in 2015 amongst all states of India in a joint study by the Government of India and the World Bank.

Speaking at the roadshow, Ms S Aparna said, “The sentiment among the Russian companies we met have been very positive and we are expecting to see a strong delegation from Russia during Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017 in January. We are happy to see that not only the big players but small and micro companies are also aware about our success story and they are wanting to explore avenues of partnership with Gujarat. While bringing investments into Gujarat will remain one of the primary objectives, we are also exploring avenues of bilateral trade as well as sharing of knowledge.”

The delegation also met the senior representatives of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which was created in 2011 under the leadership of the President and Prime Minister of Russia and manages sovereign wealth fund of USD 10 billion of reserved capital. Mr Kishan Pandey, Deputy CEO, RDIF said, “We are well aware of opportunities in Gujarat and that it is one of the most progressive state in India. We will share the avenues of collaboration with our partners and will hope to bring them to Gujarat during the Summit in January 2017.”v Rector of St. Petersburg Mines University, Prof Vladimir Litvinenko said, “We have very friendly relations with India and also share strategic partnership with some of the universities. However, I strongly feel that India has not been studied sufficiently from geological point of view and there is still a huge scope for exploring. As the state of Gujarat is keen on setting up a Mines University we will be more than happy to welcome their specialists, professors as well as students to our University for training as well as to study the facility and the technology that we have.” Experts from the University also discussed some of the areas of concern for the delegation in the mining sector like mining safety, mines management and value addition.