Branch of Hokkaido Bank to open in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, October 9 (Itar-Tass) -- A branch office of
Hokkaido Bank is opening in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Friday.
Representatives of 70 different Japanese companies, which consider
Sakhalin to be a suitable place for investments, will take part in the
opening ceremony.
Simultaneously with the branch opening, a Russian-Japanese seminar of
representatives of financial and business circles will be held to consider
issues of the world financial crisis and tendencies in the economy of the
Far East, as well as issues of energy, construction and foreign trade.
The press service of the committee of international, foreign economic
and interregional ties of the Sakhalin Region reported that the opening of
the branch office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has the aim of attracting Japanese
businesses to Sakhalin.
Today the biggest Japanese companies Mitsui, Mitsubishi and the
consortium SODECO work in Sakhalin. They participate in the oil and gas
shelf projects Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 which plan to produce about 15
million tonnes of oil and 17 billion cubic meters of gas in 2009. A
considerable part of this hydrocarbon fuel is supplied to Japan.
-0-ast