Big Russian groups eye cooperation with Thai firms
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SISTEMA, a Russian property company, is encouraging Thais to invest in many high-potential Russian industries, as it sees potential in forming joint ventures with Thai companies.
Suggested businesses are agriculture, telecommunications and information technology, hospitals, spas and seafood.
After a Thai government mission visited Russia last week, Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said yesterday that amid closer cooperation between the two countries, Thai companies could take the opportunity to penetrate the Russian market by trading and investing more in many cities there.
“Many Thai enterprises could invest and trade more in Russia, as Russia is an emerging market with [relatively high] purchasing power, while it lacks fresh food,” she said.
Sistema Group, which owns hospitals and property in Russia, would like to form JVs with Thai companies in those industries, as it perceives Thai enterprises as having high expertise in farming, seafood production, spa management, hospitals, and the telecom and IT business, she said.
Lenta Group, a hypermarket operator in St Petersburg and the fifth-largest in Russia, has shown interest in importing many foods and products from Thailand.
After meeting with Herman Tinga, commercial director of Lenta Group, Apiradi said this hypermarket operator would cooperate with Thailand in hosting an in-store promotion for Thai foods and products in its supermarkets.
The group will tomorrow join the Thaifex-World of Food Asia fair to find foods to sell at its stores.
Lenta operates 140 branches in 70 cities in Russia, and seven distribution centres. Last year, it achieved sales of US$3.8 million (Bt135 billion).
It is expected to import food products from Thailand worth at least Bt50 million a year.
Thailand and Russia have discussed forming a free-trade agreement between Asean and the Eurasian Economic Union.
Thailand and Russia have also targeted to double their trade to $10 billion in five years.
Last year, two-way trade reached $2.3 billion, of which Thai exports made up $700 million. Russia ranks 31st among Thailand’s trading partners.
Two-way trade averages $4 billion each year. Russia’s population is large at 143 million. Its gross domestic product per capita is $8,447.
