OREANDA-NEWS. Head of the Republic of Karelia Alexander Khudilainen had a meeting with Karel Charanza, Consul General of Czech Republic in St.Petersburg, who is making an official visit to Petrozavodsk.

Valentin Chmil, Deputy Head of the Republic of Karelia and Minister of Economic Development of the Republic of Karelia, and Andrey Silchenko, Acting Representative of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Petrozavodsk, took part in the meeting on the part of Russia, and Antonin Murgas, Head of PR group of ALTA, a.s., on the part of Czech Republic.

Czech Republic is not one of the important business partners of the Republic of Karelia, and its share in foreign trade of the republic was insignificant recently. However, in 2012 foreign trade of Karelia with Czechia has got the tendency to growth. In 9 months 2012 bilateral foreign trade turnover has made 12 million dollars, having increased by 21 percent to the similar period of 2011. Within the same period Czech Republic has invested 63 million dollars in Karelia. First of all, it was related to construction and delivery of equipment for Kalevala Woodworking Plant producing oriented strand boards (OSB) of a new generation which construction is nearing completion at the settlement of Solomennoye within the city of Petrozavodsk.

As Alexander Khudilainen and Karel Charanza have mentioned in the course of the talks, both parties are interested in a more active growth of cooperation. Head of Karelia has thanked Karel Charanza for participation of Czech business in crediting the construction of Kalevala Woodworking Plant, and has told the visitors about the plans of the Government of the republic on development of the economy.

– We're open and ready for the dialogue, – Alexander Khudilainen said. – The bill on support of investment activity which gives significant advantages to Russian and foreign investors was adopted at the second reading. We hope that Czech Republic will take an active part in expansion of our links.

In the opinion of Consul General, new spheres of cooperation with Karelia in which Czech colleagues are interested could be treatment at health resorts, development of tourism, processing of wood and green waste, engineering industry, construction of roads, objects of power system and minihydro power plants.

– We have got many points of coincidence, – Karel Charanza said. – So we came to continue cooperation with Karelia and learn more about projects in which Czech business could participate.

Karel Charanza assured that Consulate General of Czech Republic in St.Petersburg is ready to promote entrance of Czech companies to the Russian market, their participation in tenders and auctions. Besides, the Consul General has mentioned, this year a Czech Visa Service Centre will appear in Karelia so that the citizens of Karelia could apply for a visa without going to St.Petersburg.

Antonin Murgas, who used to hold the post of General Consul of Czech Republic in St. Petersburg before 2010 and now is Head of PR group of ALTA trading and engineering company, has told about possible spheres of cooperation between this company and Karelia. ALTA is famous not only in Czechia, but also in Eastern Europe is particularly specialized in supplying technological solutions for mechanical and power engineering, metallurgy, construction materials and mining industries, and evinces great interest in cooperation with our republic.

– We're interested in establishing cooperation in the most various spheres of activity, – Alexander Khudilainen said in conclusion of the meeting. – These are bioenergetics in which one of the immediate tasks is installation of modern equipment instead of boilers of the middle of the last century. It is wood processing, and we're waiting for the investor who will be able to process both coniferous, and hard wood. It is development of minerals and many other things. Karelia possesses huge natural resources and good prospects. In the next several years we expect to change the situation in the economy considerably. And the more modern technologies there are in Karelia, the more competitive our production is. Doors for investors are open, and we are ready for cooperation, – Head of the republic observed.