Transcript of opening remarks:

Vladimir Putin: It's good to see you in Moscow. You are most welcome here.

I am very pleased that we are able to discuss bilateral issues at a EurAsEC meeting. I note with satisfaction that our trade has been growing: last year it reached $1.2 billion and this year will approach two billion, or about $1.7 billion. Russian direct investments in the Kyrgyz economy have also been growing. We can state this with confidence. But we have things to discuss between us, so I am really glad to see you.

Once again, welcome to Moscow.

Igor Chudinov: Thank you, Mr Putin. You are right, it is very good that we can discuss in this format issues directly related to the current situation.

Trade between our countries keeps growing all the time, and this is, of course, a great achievement. In the eleven months of the year Kyrgyzstan's economy grew by 7.5%. On the one hand, that is an encouraging sign, but we also realise that current developments in neighbouring economies and in such a valuable and important trading partner as Russia may change next year and alter the pattern of our republic's economic growth.

I would therefore like to discuss a number of issues with you. They concern, above all, ways to keep our economy attractive to investors and maintain Russia's direct investments in the Kyrgyz economy. In order for the economy to develop at a rate of 66% per year, it is necessary to have investments at the $500 million level. That is about 15% of the country's GDP.

The situation emerging now shows that we can lose 5% of investments, and so economic growth will suffer. Therefore, I would like to discuss measures that we could undertake jointly to preserve investments in the Kyrgyz Republic, on a mutually beneficial basis, of course. I think both Russia and Kyrgyzstan have such projects, but they need a detailed approach to start operating in 2009.

Vladimir Putin: We have large electric power projects, and the Government is now examining the possibility of financing them. Both the Kyrgyz and Russian economies are interested in their implementation. I mean that our businesses could take part in their realisation. We expect that a large part of orders might be placed with Russian power engineering plants. That is an interesting and viable project, despite the global economic and financial difficulties. To date, these projects have been quite viable, and we will discuss them today at length.