OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2009.  A Constituent Conference of the Coordinating Committee on Economic Cooperation with African Countries to the South of the Sahara was held in Moscow on June 18.

In the course of the Conference they elected the Coordinating Committee’s executives and approved an action program for the foreseeable future.

Vnesheconombank Chairman Vladimir Dmitriev was elected as Chairman of the Coordinating Committee, Management Board Member – Vnesheconombank Deputy Chairman Petr Fradkov was elected as Deputy Chairman of the Coordinating Committee.

The Conference’s participants stressed that the Committee’s activity should be aimed at looking for new fields of mutually beneficial cooperation with African partners.

They also discussed issues of improvising the current mechanisms for public private partnership in order to secure comprehensive and systems use of domestic companies’ the potential to boost Russia’s economic presence on the African continent.

 In attendance of the Conference were Special Presidential Representative for Ties with African Leaders, Director of the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Vasiliev, representatives of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, ministries, departments, business community and business associations.