MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The organizers committee of the St. Petersburg International Naval Show will hold its second session in the second half of March under the chairmanship of Ilya Klebanov, deputy prime minister and minister of science, industry and technologies, the committee's executive secretary Anatoly Kotov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
"The session will discuss preparations for the show and approve the concept of the show's information support," Kotov said.
Over 100 Russian defense industry enterprises have confirmed participation in the show. Among them are the Baltiysky Zavod, Severnaya Verf and Almaz shipyards. Moreover, information on the show has been sent to Russian embassies in 53 countries through the Russian committee of international military-technical cooperation and Foreign Ministry.
The show will feature a forum of global shipbuilding leaders under the aegis of the London Institute of Marine Engineers (IMarE). The institute is a public organization involving top managers of shipbuilding industries from various countries.
"The Russian ship-building industry has enterprises that are lagging behind, among them are producers of naval radio- electronic equipment, communication means and ship-building equipment. During the show the managers of those enterprises will be able to study developments and technical capabilities of the world's leaders in the sphere," Kotov added.
Many Russian experts say that the show scheduled for July 2003 will attract interest of many foreign specialists. "The potential of Russian ship-building is enormous. In particular, we have a stock of military ship-building orders for 10 years, and its value makes some USD10bn," a source in the Russian Shipbuilding Agency told Interfax-AVN.
The first session of the organizers committee took place in Moscow in mid-December 2001.