OREANDA-NEWS. March 12, 2012. In Krasnodar, Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting with representatives of the international business community investing in the North Caucasus tourism cluster.

The meeting was attended by: Jean-Pierre Thomas, special representative of the President of France for the development of economic cooperation with Russia, member of the board of Resorts of the North Caucasus; Laurent Vigier, president of French state development bank Caisse des Depots et Consignations; Michael Seeber, president of Leitner-Poma Group (Austria-Italy); Kim Moon-Duk, president and CEO of KOWEPO (South Korea); Jean-Pierre Sanois, board member of the joint venture Resorts of the North Caucasus and French state development bank Caisse des Depots et Consignations; Mark Harms, chairman and CEO of Global Leisure Partners (USA).

On the Russian side, the meeting was attended, in particular, by Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy in the North Caucasus Federal District Alexander Khloponin, Presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich, Krasnodar Territory Governor Alexander Tkachev, Chairman of the Board of Resorts of the North Caucasus Ahmed Bilalov.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to Krasnodar.

This meeting is being held as part of a discussion on investing in the North Caucasus tourism cluster. First of all, I would like to sincerely thank you for coming here and for your interest in working in Russia and developing tourism in the North Caucasus, which is one of our most beautiful regions, but at the same time one that perhaps did not receive its fair share of attention until recently.

I know that there is a set of investment proposals and ideas on investing in our North Caucasus republics, the development of alpine resorts and other tourism opportunities.

I would be interested to hear your opinions about what else can be done. Any meeting with the business community, whether Russian or foreign, is always an exchange of views and ideas about what should be done to make our investment cooperation more productive.

Thank you for your participation in this meeting.