Russian President Vladimir Putin gave credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government for creating "stable conditions" for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and offered to place Russian manufacturing sites in India.
Speaking at the 15th VTB Investment Forum in Moscow on Wednesday, he also mentioned that new Russian brands are replacing Western brands who have left the market saying that local Russian manufacturers are doing very well in sectors such as consumer goods, IT, high-tech and agriculture.
"For us, it has special relevance as part of the import substitution programme, we see the advent of many new Russian brands substituting the brand by Western partners who have voluntarily left our market. And our local manufacturers have been quite successful not only in consumer goods but also in IT, high tech and agriculture," he said.
"In the agriculture sphere, the number of our manufacturers and producers continues to increase. In 1988, the Soviet Union imported grains for USD 35 billion, and last year, we exported grains to the tune of USD 66 billion, and to a large extent that is to our farmers and producers. And in all these sectors of the Russian Federation, including high-tech ones, there is an acute need to expand the opportunities to sell and export products," Putin said.
He also said Russia's import substitution program is similar to India's "Make in India" programme and added that the India leadership focused on a policy of prioritizing its interest.
He also offered to put his Russian manufacturing sites in India.
Prime Minister Modi has a similar programme 'Make in India'. This is a very similar programme to ours, he said.
"And we would be ready to place our manufacturing site in India. Also, the biggest investment in India in the economy to the tune of USD 20 billion by Rosneft happened not long ago," he added.
Rosneft is the biggest oil producer company in the Russian Federation.
"The Prime Minister of India and the Government of India have been creating stable conditions and this is because the Indian leadership has been pursuing India comes first policy and we believe that investments in India are profitable," the Russian President said.
Putin also appealed for more cooperation between the BRICS nations to support SMEs.
The nine-member BRICS bloc includes India, China, Russia, and Brazil.
"I would ask colleagues responsible for the BRICS corporation to analyze the situation on the main areas of cooperation, and we will definitely draw the attention of Brazilian colleagues who will chair BRICS next year," he added.
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