India, Russia working to address issues to facilitate pvt sector cooperation: Prabhu

India and Russia are working to address and resolve trade and investment issues to facilitate and increase private sector cooperation between the countries, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said Thursday.

India has already announced setting up of a fast track, single-window mechanism for Russian companies which would be chaired by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary, he was quoted as saying in a statement.

This mechanism would be in addition to the Russia Desk that had been set up to promote Russian investment in India, Prabhu said.

"The two governments are working to address and resolve trade and investment barriers with a view to facilitating and advancing private sector cooperation," he said.

The India-Russia bilateral investment treaty discussions have commenced, he said.

Prabhu was addressing an interactive forum between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of India and Russia in Bengaluru.

As SMEs are often less informed about the schemes that exists in both the countries, there is a need to curate a digital bridge between the economies so that SMEs can benefit from it.

"It is also required that we are share our best practices to make our alliance as smooth as possible and create a vigorous market with access to capital and technology for businesses both in India and Russia," the minister said.

The two countries could cooperate in sectors such as energy resources, gold and diamonds, infrastructure development, digital technologies, research and development, pharma and biotechnology and agriculture among others to increase trade and investments.

The bilateral trade between the countries has increased to USD 10.7 billion in 2017-18 from USD 7.5 billion in 2016-17.