Sverdlovsk Region imported $36.8bn worth of goods and exported $8.51bn worth of goods in 2011, the region’s Minister for International & Foreign Economic Relations Alexander Kharlov said at the meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly’s Regional Policies & Local Government Development Committee.

‘The export of machine-building industry-related products amounted to $1.5bn in 2010 and shrank by nearly two times a year later. This was the case because we stopped shipping goods to Iran, formerly our key customer. Our enterprises buy $2bn worth of machine-building products abroad,’ Kharlov said.

The minister also admitted that the Russian officials were not properly prepared to communicate with the foreign delegations.

Chairman of the Legislative Assembly’s Regional Policies & Local Government Development Committee Anatoly Pavlov said the situation called for enhancing the importance of the Ural Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

‘Your ministry’s authority overlaps with that of the Chamber to some extent. Everywhere else in the world, it is the chamber that handles the issues of trade and industry, so this is where we need to be heading,’ Pavlov said.