Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has signed agreements with companies from Singapore on investment projects in Russia totaling more than $1 billion. The contracts were sealed at the Russia-ASEAN Summit in Singapore.

“Russia-Singapore investment cooperation is actively developing, including Russia’s ties with major Asian economies,” said the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev.

According to Dmitriev, the agreements include investments in chemical projects in Russia’s Tatarstan. At the moment Singapore’s investments in Russian businesses account for more than $17 billion, Dmitriev noted.

Singapore has recently recognized Russia as a key country for investment potential, and has been actively encouraging both Singaporean government funds and the private sector to invest in the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also attended the Russia-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit on Wednesday, paying a visit to Singapore for the first time. He said economic relations between Russia and ASEAN were “evolving steadily’ and trade increased by 35 percent last year, reaching $18.3 billion. Mutual accumulated investment exceeded $25 billion.

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The first Russia-ASEAN summit took place in Kuala Lumpur in 2005. Currently, ASEAN comprises 10 Southeast Asian countries, including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Russia became a dialogue partner in July 1996.

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