Russia Offer Multiple Entry Visas To Enhance Business

In a bid to increase Indo-Russian trade and capitalize on India's booming economy, Russia has decided to offer multiple entry visas for a period of five years for Industrialists who are willing to renew trade ties with Russia.

Talking to various industrialists across Punjab Mr Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation assured that an agency would be first put in place to test the bona fides of the businessmen who are first granted visas.

The Ambassador also assured industrialists that since Russia has moved from a centralized economy to market economy, the Russian government would act as an intermediary between the Russian industrialists and entrepreneurs from India.

The development is of great significance for exporters from Punjab, who till the disintegration of the erstwhile USSR, were exporting a major bulk of their produce – woolen blankets, hosiery and auto parts to the Soviet Union. However, with the failure of the banking facilities after the disintegration, local entrepreneurs were skeptical about doing business in Russia. Rough estimates put the total volume of trade to Russia from the state at RS 1100 crore to RS 1500 crore.