During the visit, the first deputy prime minister met with Maxime Verhagen, deputy prime minister and Dutch minister of economic affairs, agriculture and innovation. Viktor Zubkov and Maxime Verhagen chaired a meeting of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation between Russia and the Netherlands.

When asked about the outcome of his visit, Mr Zubkov said:

"Today we had a very substantive discussion of the key areas of our bilateral economic cooperation. We discussed joint actions to implement bilateral and multilateral economic and investment projects, and made plans to further expand our cooperation.

"At this stage, our cooperation has been quite rewarding. Bilateral trade grew 46% in 2010, to $58.4 billion. This upward trend has continued into the first quarter of 2011 – goods turnover has increased by 7.6% or $14.3 billion. The Netherlands remains a leader among countries investing in Russia. In 2002-2010, Dutch investment in Russia's economy grew more than tenfold to over $40 billion.

"However, we still have strong potential for further increasing the volume and content of our cooperation.

"Energy has long been a priority of our cooperation. The experience we gained through implementing large projects such as Nord Stream and the world's largest gas liquefaction plant in Sakhalin could be useful in other projects, including oil and gas development in the Yamal Peninsula and the Kara Sea.

"Dutch developments in resource efficiency and energy efficiency may be useful in infrastructure development projects; some are already being used by Russian companies.

"The memorandums of understanding on cooperation we have signed today in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as in innovation and energy efficiency, will spur on our cooperation.

"Partnership in innovation is also a priority. The Joint Statement on Partnership for Modernisation will provide an additional incentive to our cooperative progress in that direction.

"Other important areas for our cooperation include new production technologies, transportation and processing of oil and gas resources, renewable energy sources, IT and telecommunications. We are especially interested in healthcare cooperation. One of our tangible achievements in that area is the development of the 16-slice tomography scanner, which has already gone into commercial production in Russia. A working group will be set up within the commission to broaden cooperation in the development and production of high-tech medical equipment. We have agreed on that today.

"Russia's innovation centre in Skolkovo will help fully implement these important projects.

"We can also benefit from the considerable experience of our Dutch partners in designing hydraulic structures, as well as in upgrading infrastructure facilities in the Russian cities that will host games of the FIFA World Cup in 2018.

"These are some of the issues we have addressed today. They will be discussed in greater detail during business seminars for specific industries throughout this year. These seminars will focus on various aspects of our bilateral partnership such as bioenergy, agriculture, fisheries, transport and infrastructure.

"I think we are making rapid progress here, which will allow us to fully implement the fifth Joint Programme of Actions between Russia and the Netherlands for 2011-2013 signed in March 2011."