Russian firm shows interest

ONE of the world’s largest producers of aluminium, Russian-owned JSC Rusal, has shown interest in investing in Papua New Guinea, Russian ambassador to PNG Alexander Ivanov said.
He said the company was looking at aluminium production, bauxite extraction and electric energy.
JSC Rusal became the world leader in aluminium in 2007 following the merger of the assets of three companies.
In a full-page newspaper advertisement last week, Ivanov, who is also Russian ambassador to Indonesia based in Jakarta, highlighted that recently Russian state and private companies had been showing growing interest in developing business cooperation with PNG.
He said that despite being geographically isolated, PNG and Russia had a lot of potential to increase their bilateral cooperation on a wide range of interests, including oil and gas, mining, military and technical development, science, tourism and fisheries.
On the political front, Ivanov said both countries had traditionally taken a similar stance on principal global issues, particularly combating international terrorism.
“We are grateful to our partners for their support provided to Russia’s initiatives in the UN and other international forums.
“In particular, we are successfully cooperating within the framework of Apec and Asean regional forum (ARF) on security.”
Ivanov said that since Russia would be the chairman of Apec next year, it was looking forward to meeting PNG representatives in the various activities of this regional grouping in Vladivostok.
PNG and Russia, then the USSR, established diplomatic ties at independence and at its height, had an embassy in Port Moresby in 1990.
It and many other overseas missions closed two years later when the USSR was dismantled.