By Omar Obeidat

AMMAN –– The 10th Annual Russian Industrial Exhibition started on Monday with the participation of nearly 37 companies.

According to Nael Kabariti, president of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce (JCC), a delegation of 150 businesspeople are participating in the three-day event representing major industrial companies in Russia working in the fields of energy, construction, water and railway as well as other heavy machinery manufacturers.

“This year we brought firms that can take part in the mega-projects Jordan plans to implement in the fields of energy, railway and water,” Kabariti told The Jordan Times yesterday, adding these companies have also the capability to finance such projects.

Svetlana Zabelina, director of the exhibition, remarked that 20 other companies were supposed to take part in the expo but they cancelled their participation due to the political unrest in the region.

“We were shocked by these last minute cancellation because Jordan is stable and the Russian foreign ministry encouraged them to participate in the event,” she added.

Kabariti indicated that many Jordanian firms benefited from previous exhibitions by being able to enter the Russian market, particularly Dead Sea products, in addition to other firms, which signed contracts with their Russian peers to represent them in Jordan and the region.

He noted that the exhibitions also contributed to raising trade exchange between the two countries, indicating that trade volumes reached $600 million last year, in favour of Russia, mainly wheat from the former Soviet Union Republic.

Among participating companies is the Russian Railways company (Zarubezhstroy Technology), which is implementing the railway network linking the Libyan cities of Sirt and Benghazi with a cost of 2.2 billion euros and a length of 1,219 kilometres.

Officials at the company stressed their keenness to take part in the National Railway Network the Kingdom plans to carry out next year to connect Jordan with its neighbouring countries.

On the sidelines of the expo, members of the Jordanian-Russian Business Council called for establishing a trade centre for the Kingdom in Moscow to promote Jordanian made products.

The annual exhibition is organised by JCC, Zarubezh Expo and the International Association of Peace Foundations.