‘The Russian Minister for Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko and I are currently working on the introduction of free economic zones in Russia, where emphasis would be laid on high technologies and telecommunications. A number of very important agreements to this extent were signed yesterday,’ the Italian Minister for Economic Development Claudio Scaiola announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg.

The Minister reported over eighty representatives of various Italian enterprises were currently touring four Russian cities, including Yekaterinburg, so they were to have over eight hundred meetings with Russian top business executives.

‘The Governor of Sverdlovsk Region and I decided to set up a work team here in the Urals that would keep an eye on the process of creating the free economic zones and help the ideas come true,’ the Minister noted.