Monday, March 13 2006 14:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Moscow: Ahead of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's visit to India which will focus on enhancing economic cooperation between the two countries, Moscow today (Mar 13 2006) said bilateral trade can increase up to 8-10 billion dollars in the next five years.

The development of Russian-Indian economic cooperation will be "prioritised" during the March 15-17 visit of Prime Minister Fradkov to New Delhi, Russian Ambassador to India Vyacheslav Trubnikov said.

At present the Russian-Indian trade is of about two billion dollars. Trubnikov said "the real possibilities exist to increase the bilateral trade to 8-10 billion dollars in the next five years."

According to the Russian envoy, the lack of information exchange between business circles of the two countries was primarily hampering the rapid development of bilateral trade relations, sources reported.

"In this connection, the problem of a narrow product range and a high share of the primary product group emerges," the envoy said.

"There is a need to improve and expand the commodity structure of trade, particularly increasing the share of the high-tech and science-intensive produce in this commodity structure," Trubnikov said in an interview today.

Fradkov, an old India hand, would be the first top Russian leader to visit the country after US President George W Bush's visit early this month during which the historic Indo-US civil nuclear deal was finalised.