BISNIS Representative
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
On January 22, 2000 the U.S. Ambassador to Russia James F. Collins visited Nizhny Novgorod to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the American Informational and Educational Center. It was opened in 1995 under the Cooperation Agreement between the Presidents of the USA and Russia and was sponsored by the USIA. The Center’s library has over 4,500 books in various fields of knowledge, including the history of the United States. Moreover, it has a few multimedia laboratories with an access to Internet. Mr. Collins had a few meetings with the local business community and local authorities, including the one with Governor Sklyarov and top executives of U.S. companies in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Both Nizhny Novgorod city and regional authorities extended a 75 per cent tax exemption period to the local budget in 4 Territorial Production Zones until 2005. They are located in 4 Nizhny Novgorod-based defense companies: Petrovsky Plant, Lazur, Salyut and Elektromash. Territorial Production Zones were established to support defense conversion programs in those companies.
Mr. Pugin, President of the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ), had a meeting with Mr. Cantarella, CEO of FIAT, in Turin, Italy. Both sides agreed to continue joint cooperation and submit a revised business plan /investment agreement to the Russian Ministry of Economics in March. The implementation of the investment project will begin as soon as both documents have been approved in the Russian Federal level. To make it more affordable for Russian consumers, the Russian-Italian JV plans to sell a substantial percentage of its FIAT cars on credit.