Addressing the business forum, the Deputy Prime Minister said that Russia expects cooperation with Finnish companies in building nuclear-powered and diesel-engine icebreakers. "The budget for the next four-year period provides for considerable allocations towards the construction of four diesel-engine icebreakers and one nuclear-powered icebreaker. And we are counting on cooperation between Russian and Finnish shipbuilders," Mr Ivanov said.

A number of analysts currently believe that it would be inappropriate to expand the European shipbuilding industry, which faces tough competition in this area from South East Asian companies, Mr Ivanov noted. He said that Russia has no intention of competing against Asian companies in the manufacture of multi-role vessels, and that it intends to focus on the construction of specialised vessels, including icebreakers, liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and chemical tankers. The deputy prime minister pointed out that Finland has built 60% of the world's diesel-engine icebreakers, and that Russia is responsible for 100% of nuclear-powered icebreakers.

In speaking of Russian-Finnish trade and economic relations, Mr Ivanov noted that the countries' bilateral trade turnover had increased by 27.6% in January-July 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, reaching a total of $11 billion. In January-June 2011, Russia received $464.3 million worth of Finnish investment, including $230.5 million of direct investment. The total volume of accumulated Finnish investment in the Russian economy now exceeds $3 billion.

On October 25, Sergei Ivanov, who co-chairs the Russian-Finnish Inter-Governmental Commission for Economic Cooperation, met with his Finnish counterpart, Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb, co-chairman of the commission's Finnish section.