Opportunities in Russia for Singapore's green firms

Singapore’s growing expertise in green technology makes it a choice partner for Russia as it develops its own sustainable energy sector, Russian representatives said here yesterday. Sergey Obrezanov, director and chief executive of the Russian Business Incubator (RBI), told an energy conference that the country is looking to adopt technologies and solutions from Singapore to help modernize its own economy. ‘Russia has an old infrastructure for waste management and this needs to be modernized,’ added Kichatov to the 70-strong audience. Teng Theng Dar, chief executive officer of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), which jointly organized the conference, noted that many Russian firms in the energy field possess advanced technologies. Russia was Singapore’s 30th-largest trading partner last year, with a total trade value of $3.8billion – a spike of almost 100% from 2007’s level of $1.9billion. Top import products from Russia include refined petroleum products, crude petroleum and aluminium. Russia’s economy is ‘coming of age’ and presents huge opportunities to local firms willing to ‘go out and hunt for them’, said Teng. The RBI and the SBF signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January to encourage trade, economic, technology and investment flows between both countries. (June 27, 2009)