UAE - Mubasher: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the UAE’s sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company on Wednesday announced they have signed six collaboration agreements as part of their successful long-term investment partnership.
The newly signed agreements will cover a number of central sectors to the Russian economy, including advanced technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), healthcare, transport, and logistics, according to a press release.
The six agreements were signed on the sidelines of the official visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the UAE.
Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Mubadala’s Group CEO and Managing Director, commented: “We are proud of the dynamic partnership we have developed over the years with RDIF. The six collaboration agreements announced today demonstrate the strength of the multidimensional relationship that continues to flourish between RDIF and Mubadala as a symbol of the much deeper bond between our two nations. We remain committed to supporting these new initiatives and to maintaining our productive partnership with RDIF in the long term.”
Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of RDIF, said: “We are grateful to our partners at Mubadala for the strong interest they have shown in our country for many years. We are confident that together we will continue to make successful investments both for implementing Russia’s national projects and reaching technology development targets, particularly in AI. The investments we make are aimed at advancing all the key areas of the economy, as well as enhancing living standards in Russia. RDIF is dedicated to bringing these six cooperation agreements to fruition, by raising capital and through engaging the expertise of international partners such as Mubadala.”
RDIF and Mubadala will collaborate on Russia’s National Projects across various sectors, focusing on AI projects.
The parties will work jointly to invest in key areas of Russia’s five-year strategic development plans.
They will also cooperate to improve the healthcare infrastructure in Russia by exchanging expertise and giving Russian patients the opportunity seek treatment and medical care by advanced clinics in the UAE.
Moreover, both parties will mull over investment into a new pulp mill project with Sveza, one of Russia’s leading woodworking companies.
The total size of the pulp mill project is expected to worth nearly S$2.8 billion (AED 10 billion), the two entities revealed.
This project will have a design capacity output of over 1.3 million tonnes of wood pulp per annum and will be focusing on Russian and key European and Asian markets.
“RDIF and Mubadala are considering a joint investment into NefteTransService (NTS), one of Russia’s largest operators of railway rolling stock. The agreement forms part of a consortium, led by RDIF, that is looking to invest $300 million (AED 1 billion) into the expansion of NTS’ fleet of rolling stock, strengthening its position in the railway logistics market,” they said.
The two parties have also have agreed to enter a partnership with NtechLab, the leading Russian face recognition technologies developer, to support the developer to expand in the Middle East.
Furthermore, they have agreed to boost their investment in the Professional Logistics Technologies (PLT) platform to build new logistics facilities.
“The parties will invest in the construction of a new class A multi-temperature distribution centre and related infrastructure in the Moscow region with gross leasable area of over 100,000 square metres. The tenant of the complex will be a leading Russian food retailer,” they indicated.
The RDIF and Mubadala have jointly made over 45 investments with an aggregate value in excess of $2 billion (AED 7 billion) since their collaboration began in 2013.
