THE senior executive officer of a respectable construction firm in Russia has called on a Philippine envoy to discuss their interest in participating in the Duterte administration’s infrastructure program, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.
Alexander Efremov, deputy CEO of the Russian construction firm Tomskoblstroy, met with Philippine Ambassador to the Russian Federation Carlos D. Sorreta to discuss the company’s interest to participate in infrastructure projects in the Philippines, including airports in Palawan and Luzon.
Tomskoblstroy is a general contractor of industrial and civil construction works. The company is based in the Siberian city of Tomsk and has completed various residential apartment buildings and industrial projects.
Efremov said there is a strong interest in the Philippines among members of the Russian business community. Their company, he said, is engaged in advanced talks with Philippine partners and looks forward to concluding discussions soon.
“We have been watching carefully the developments in the Philippines. The governance under President Rodrigo Duterte is very encouraging to businessmen and investors,” he said.
Sorreta affirmed the embassy’s full support for the two countries’ economic cooperation, including the involvement of Philippine and Russian companies in large-scale projects.
The DFA announced the meeting after Sorreta earlier announced that he had met with Russian officials over the possibility of acquiring Russian military materiel.
Sorreta and vice consul Luningning Camoying said he discussed the acquisition with officials of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation.
The FSMTC is a federal agency directly under the Office of the President of the Russian Federation responsible for control and oversight in the field of military-technical cooperation between the Russian Federation and foreign countries.
Russian officials who hosted the briefing are First Department on Military and Technical Cooperation with Foreign States chief Serggey Buganov; and Section on Military-Technical Cooperation with Countries of the Asia-Pacific Region chief Valery Orel.
Aside from the military equipment and technology, Sorreta said Russia is also willing to provide training, after-sales service and maintenance, transfer of technology, investment in domestic military production and servicing and different modes of financing.
Sorreta and Camoying were briefed after a similar meeting between a Department of National Defense delegation, led by Undersecretary for Finance and Materiel Raymundo de Vera Elefante, and Russian defense officials including officials of the FSMTC.
The talks with Russia developed after Duterte met with Russian Ambassador Khovaev, who met with Duterte in Davao City a few days after the May 9 elections.
Khovaev said he was impressed by Duterte during a “very productive” meeting where they discussed how to jump-start Philippine-Russian relations which officially started only in 1976.
Khovaev said that it was “time for Russians to discover the Philippines, and it is time for the Philippines to discover Russia,” adding that strengthened trade cooperation could begin before the end of this year.
The Russian envoy said there is much potential in the two country’s bilateral ties because “there were no disputes and no contradictions” and only develop “cooperation in practical terms.”