Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Francois Fillon (as translated): A meeting of our commission is a good opportunity to consolidate contacts between the French and Russian business communities, and a symbol of their growth.

Incidentally, this meeting was delayed because each minister wanted to be able to report on the success of this cooperation and on the progress achieved since the Sochi meeting.

I am very pleased to see many directors of French and Russian companies here. If Mr Putin does not object, I will ask him to say a few words about our cooperation. Then I will give the floor to Olivier Barbaroux, Chairman of Dalkia, and GDF Suez CEO, Gerard Mestrallet and General Director of Electricite de France, Henri Proglio. I assume Mr Putin will introduce Russia's top managers.

Then we will sign about 30 agreements. We are desperately behind schedule. I don't have any pressing engagements now, but Mr Putin is very busy. He needs to return to Moscow and I don't want to delay him. Mr Putin, please proceed.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm very pleased to meet with the top managers of our leading companies, who are in charge of entire industries.

I also remember our meeting in Sochi very well. But first I'd like to note that we have been building up our cooperation for a long time. By and large, we have been pleased about the progress between our trade and economic contacts. However, we have not been completely satisfied. Both sides have admitted that we have not been using our full potential, that we have had substantial opportunities.

Needless to say, there remain many opportunities today. As we were preparing for this meeting and reviewing everything today, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we have made a kind of a breakthrough. We are witnessing progress in specific projects practically across the board. Our work is important and tangible.

This applies to high technologies, such as aircraft building and aviation as a whole, space exploration, and helicopter and engine manufacturing. This is also true of the energy industry. We have questions, for instance, on the nuclear power industry, but they are constructive. We have specific projects in this field as well.

I don't even need to mention hydrocarbons. Here, French companies enjoy most favoured status. They are expanding their presence in extraction ventures and now will take part in transport. Major Russian and French companies are expanding cooperation to new levels. They plan to exchange assets, starting today. This is very important.

It is also important that they are taking part in major European infrastructure projects like South Stream. Let me repeat that we continue this cooperation in many areas. We are also pursuing new areas, such as telecommunications. We see great prospects here. The pharmaceuticals industry is also new, and it is also linked with current challenges and new technologies.

French companies are increasing their investment in the Russian economy. I told Mr Prime Minister that France has surpassed the United States in this respect, and this is not the limit. We are convinced that Russian businesses will invest much more in the French economy and vice versa. For our part, we will do everything to facilitate this process.

If you will, I'd like to say a few words about the Russian economy. It has been affected by the crises as much as the global economy in general, or probably even more because of its structure. We expected this year's results to be even worse but they are not as bad as we thought. However, our economy will still be hard hit, and a decline will be tangible. At the same time, inflation will be lower, and we are very happy about this. In general, we are doing well in targeting inflation issues, which is good for the macro economy and hence, for our cooperation.

I'm pleased to note that our gold and currency reserves are growing. Early this year we took tough but justified decisions regarding these reserves for social considerations and in order to secure free currency traffic in our financial system.

But today these reserves are growing and have already reached $444 billion. We are third after China and Japan. This has created a good, stable foundation for foreign economic contacts, for foreign trade. This also allows us to maintain the stability of our national currency, which, after certain fluctuations, has regained its value and is getting stronger. Today, it is even approaching the pre-crisis level.

We will continue working to create stable and reliable conditions for operating in the Russian market. We will certainly work to improve them.

I hope that today we will hear positive remarks regarding our cooperation from the business community. But if there are also critical questions, let me assure you that we will respond to them.

Thank you for your attention.