Rajasthan Chief Minister Ms Vasundhara Raje has said that Russia can be a progressive partner of Rajasthan in development, and sought its expertise in sectors like infrastructure and mineral extraction, an official statement said here.

Addressing a business seminar organized by Russia-India Business Forum at Yekaterinburg, she said: “Russia can help Rajasthan in development of infrastructure, mineral extraction, urban planning, pollution control, defence manufacturing, heavy machinery and engineering sectors”.

Yekaterinburg is administrative capital of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Earlier Ms Raje met with the head of Government of Sverdlovsk Oblast region D.V. Pasler and the local business delegates. “We (Rajasthan) and Sverdlovsk could complement each other for engineering and mining sectors,” she said while addressing the seminar.

Rajasthan is seeing a substantial growth in engineering and automotive sectors and it can be gauged from the fact that about 150 companies were already making automotive components in the state. “I feel that mutual cooperation could further reinforce these sectors,” Ms Raje added.

She pointed out Rajasthan’s economy, which was larger than that of many global economies, is growing faster than many of the leading states.