Russia–France relations are developing despite difficulties. We are pleased to note that last year our trade grew by 16.5 percent. In January–March it increased by another 25 percent, — Vladimir Putin, President of Russian Federation.

French enterprises employ 106 000 Russian citizens. France comes in second directly investing in Russia, and we are upholding our economic interests in becoming first,” — Emmanuel Macron, President of France.

France is the first in creating jobs in Russia. But we also are familiar with difficulties we face here. They are out of our hand, although we try to limit their effect on us. We behave like real friends, which is why there are so many of us accompanying our President — Pierre Gattaz, President, Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF)..

We are well represented in Russia. We have 350 branches and several thousand clients. We are the third-largest retail bank, and we work with a number of major enterprises, — Frederic Oudea, President, European Banking Federation; Chief Executive Officer, Société Générale.

The aggregate amount of Russian investment in the French economy stands at about USD 3 billion, while French investment in Russia is about USD 15 billion. Not much. One Finnish company invests six billion, and the whole of France just 15. How is this normal? — Vladimir Putin, President of Russian Federation.

Some foreign funds have taken an unprecedented step. They automatically co-invest with our direct investment fund. They do it by default, in any project: wherever the Russian Direct Investment Fund invests, our foreign partners immediately do the same, because they trust their Russian partners — Vladimir Putin, President of Russian Federation.

We invested $9 billion in Russia, most of which went to the Yamal projects, — Patrick Pouyanne, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board, Total.

We hosted two meetings of French businessmen with the President of the Russian Federation at the business council. We hope that after today’s visit, the French President will also invite our businessmen. Yesterday, a very important document was signed on Total’s entry in the Arctic LNG-2 project. This demonstrates that France–Russia business relations continue regardless of any sanctions and difficulties — Gennadiy Timchenko, Founder, Main Shareholder, Volga Group.

hrough acquisition of GEFCO, the French logistics company, Russian Railways is now represented in several dozen countries of the world. GEFCO successfully assimilates in the business climate of the so called broad-gauge railroads. Another result of our cooperation with French colleagues is Olympus, the next generation electric locomotive — Frederic Oudea, President, European Banking Federation; Chief Executive Officer, Société Générale.

About 20 banks participate in the biometric system experiment. This puts Russia among the leaders of this innovation. The Bank of Russia initiated the Marketplace platform that will enable Russian citizens to compare financial products from various partners and participate in transactions. Russian banking sector evolves at a good pace, and I am happy that Société Générale is a part of this process — Frederic Oudea, President, European Banking Federation; Chief Executive Officer, Société Générale.

Gas purchases from Gazprom constitute one-seventh of all trade relations between Russia and France (15%), — Isabelle Kocher, Chief Executive Officer, Engie.

Moscow is the base of our cluster in Central Europe. We have a team that can manage this region. We attach much significance to investing in Russia and Russian innovations — Benoit Potier, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, Air Liquide SA..

We agreed with Schneider Electric on the digitalization of the Tver region’s network complex by the end of 2019. The French side has very done well with setting up upper-level control systems in the grid power industry. It is not only about adapting, but more about customizing the use of local industrial potential and showing the way to foreign markets — Pavel Livinsky, Chairman of the Management Board, PAO Rosseti.

The integration of AVTOVAZ into the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance enabled us to increase sales faster than the market recovers and grow our market share — Sergey Skvortsov, Chairman of the Board of Directors at OAO AVTOVAZ.

We built a meat processing plant in Tambov, which sells raw materials to many Russian producers. Soon we will take not only beef and pork, but also lamb — Wilhelm Hubner, Chairman of the Management Board, Auchan Holding SA.

In 2011, we acquired Milko, which rose us to the leaders of Russian milk collectors. We invested several billion euros in the dairy industry — Emmanuel Faber, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, Danone SA.