Mukesh Ambani to head India-Russia CEOs' forum

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani will co-chair the India-Russia CEOs' Council, which was established on Wednesday to strengthen bilateral business cooperation in the areas of oil, energy, power, transport, telecom and high technology.

This was announced by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath at the conclusion of the 2nd meeting of India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment, coinciding with the visit of Russian Prime Minister Victor A Zubkov.

Ten CEOs each from India and Russia will be on the Council, which will work towards converting about 8 billion dollars worth of projects under discussion and explore new areas for trade and investment.

With the setting up of the business council, "the level of economic engagement between the two countries should increase," Nath said, while addressing a joint press conference with Russian Minister for Economic Development and Trade Elvira S Nabiullina.

Nabiulliana said, "CEOs' Council will be useful to increase the trade manifold between the two countries."

The two BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries had agreed on Tuesday to boost the bilateral trade to 10 billion dollars by 2010.