Press Release, Friday 31/03/17.
At the Special General Meeting of the Australia Russia Dialogue (ARD) held today Mr Eden Paki, Head of Marketing Europe, Africa & Asia, Orica Limited, has been elected as the new ARD President. Creation of ARD was initiated in 2012 by the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, and the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs at that time, Kevin Rudd.
Eden faces a challenging task of reshaping this developing non-government organisation to serve its purposes at the time when bilateral trade and investments between the two countries have substantially reduced and regional relations in the Asia Pacific are in need of clearer goals.
About ARD: ARD is an association of industry, the professions, and academia. Its primary aim is to promote multifaceted engagement between Australia and Russia. Specifically its objectives are:
To promote business, educational, technological, tourist, and cultural links between Australia and Russia.
To provide a forum for its members to discuss public policy issues of relevance to both countries and to advance these policies in a spirit of mutual understanding.
To organise and promote various events for members, friends and colleagues to foster wider public awareness of the Australia-Russia relationships.
On the official level, ARD enjoys bilateral support of the Australian Ambassador to Russia, HE Mr PeterTesch, and the Russian Ambassador to Australia, HE Mr Grigory Logvinov.
About Orica Ltd.: Orica is the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction markets, a leading supplier of sodium cyanide for gold extraction, and a specialist provider of ground support services in mining and tunnelling. With a diverse workforce of around 11,500 employees and contractors, servicing customers across more than 100 countries globally, Orica has been operating in Russia for more than 20 years now with currently over 300 employees working at its 7 production sites and central office in Moscow, providing products and services to more than 20 clients in the country, which include the biggest Russian fertilizers and metals producers.
For further details contact ard@iinet.net.au