Commerce Minister to lead CII's business delegation to Russia this week

New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will lead a business delegation of CII to Russia later this week to participate in an economic forum where ways to boost trade and investment between the two nations would be discussed.

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2015 will be held at St Petersburg, Russia from 18-20 June. Along with her counterpart Alexey Ulyukaev, Sitharaman will also address the Russia-India Business Round table, CII said in a statement. It said huge potential exists between the countries to boost trade and investments.

"India and Russia can achieve USD 30 billion bilateral trade target by 2025," it added. The areas which have the potential to increase cooperation include oil and gas, nuclear energy, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automotives, heavy engineering and machinery, it said.

The industry chamber said that Russia has expertise in infrastructure sector and it invited Russian companies to participate in the Indian tender system for public-private partnerships. India has received only USD 1.05 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) from Russia during April 2000 and March 2015.