MOSCOW, March 12 (AVN) - The second international forum High Technologies of the Defence Industry 2001 opened at the Expocentre exhibition ground in Moscow on Monday.
The forum, organised at the initiative of the Moscow government with the support from the Russian government, will last until Friday. Its main aims are to consolidate intellectual and production potential for strengthening positions of Russian producers at domestic and foreign markets, demonstrate the Russian defence industry's capacities in technologies design and knowledge-intensive goods production, and to form Moscow's image as a hi-tech centre. The forum exhibits the best achievements of Moscow-based defence industry enterprises.
The forum was opened by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. In his speech Luzhkov stressed the significant role of defence industry enterprises in the Russian economy. "That is where new inventions and technologies later used in civilian spheres are being created, and they also considerably influence the manufacturability level and production efficiency of those industry branches," the mayor said.
The opening was also attended by Moscow First Deputy Mayor Valery Shantsev and deputy chairmen of the forum's organising committeeYevgeny Panteleyev, also head of the science and industrial policy department of the mayor's office, and Frantishek Kovrigo, chairman of the Moscow-based defence industry enterprises reform committee.
The forum features all Russian defence industry agencies with over 240 defence industry enterprises from 22 Russian regions. Last year, only 170 enterprises exhibited their products here.
A specialist exhibition, international conferences and round table discussions will be held under the auspices of the forum. They will be attended by industrialists and businessmen of more than 20 countries located in the CIS, Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Middle East and Latin America. A presentation of investment projects and technologies in the spheres of aviation, space, energetics, ecology, machine-building, chemistry and new materials will take place at the forum as well.
Investment projects and technologies represented at the forum were selected and examined by the Russian Fund of Hi-Tech Development.