Russia president seeks Hong Kong finance ties

HONG KONG, April 17 (AFP): Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held talks Sunday with Hong Kong's leader on a visit aimed at improving business ties and harnessing the territory's financial expertise to modernise Russia. In the first visit by a Kremlin chief to the former British colony, Medvedev told Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang that the territory's famously open economy could serve as a model for Moscow. "Hong Kong's experience is extremely indicative for us. We must list excessive administrative barriers -- Hong Kong's experience in this aspect could be used in our country ... (and) could also help to establish a global financial centre in Moscow," Medvedev said. The Kremlin chief arrived late Saturday leading a business delegation as he seeks to diversify his country's economy beyond oil and gas and entice more foreign capital in what he has called a "very bad" domestic investment climate. Tsang described the first two listings of Russian firms on Hong Kong's stock exchange -- United Company RUSAL, the world's top aluminium producer, and IRC, an iron ore subsidiary of miner Petropavlovsk, both floated on the bourse last year -- as a "breakthrough". "Russian firms can use Hong Kong as a stable and efficient platform to settle ... trade in renminbi," he added, citing a bond issue in the Chinese currency by Russian bank VTB this year, another first. Tsang said that bilateral trade grew by a "remarkable" 63 per cent last year.