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Moscow hopes for soonest rupee debt settlement with India
(Interfax News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) - Russia hopes an agreement on Indian rupee debt settlement will be signed in the near future, Deputy Prime Minister and Co-chairman of the Russian-Indian Intergovernmental Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation Alexander Zhukov told Interfax.
"We hope for the soonest possible signing of these intergovernmental accords, which will define the mechanisms for turning debt into investment," he said.
The signing of the documents will start a detailed discussion of Russian companies' access to the rupee debt, Zhukov said.
Several Russian companies, including AFK Systema, Tekhnokhim Holding, Sudoimport, Russian Aluminum and the Magnitogorsk metallurgical plant, were considering investments in India via the rupee debt in 2004- 2005, he said.
A number of projects have gained speed over recent months, Zhukov said. For instance, Russia's Tekhnokhim Holding and Giredmet federal state unitary enterprise and India's Saraf Agencies Private Ltd. and Titanium Mineral Products Ltd. and the government of Orissa state have drafted a memorandum on setting up a joint venture to make titanium dioxide and other products in India.
This February Moscow and New Delhi agreed on a mechanism for settling $1 billion of Indian debt through investment.
India earlier put forward terms of settlement deemed unacceptable to Russia. For instance, it wanted Russian companies to be unable to quit projects in which the rupee debt is invested for 15 years. India also suggested a certain discount for rupee debt investments.
The sides agreed there would not be any discount, and the period for keeping Russian companies' assets in India would not be longer than five years at most, or not set at all.
The full text of Zhukov's interview will be posted on the www.interfax.ru and www.interfax.com websites on March 16. te la
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