DEFENCE COMPLEX HIGH TECHNOLOGIES EXHIBITION OPENS IN MOSCOW








MOSCOW, March 12 /from RIA Novosti's Yevgenia Yakuta/ - "Defence Complex High Technologies," a high-tech product exhibition, has opened in Moscow today. The opening ceremony was attended by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.


	Taking part in the exhibition are 300 defence industry enterprises and high-tech firms based in Moscow and 22 regions of Russia, Belarus and Moldova. The first Moscow military high-tech exhibition took place last year and involved 170 companies from 14 Russian regions.


	When addressing the opening ceremony Luzhkov said that conversion products are of great interest to civilian structures and municipal agencies. "Without revealing the country's military secrets, Moscow takes advantage of the defence sector's huge potential in producing medicines, medical equipment, water purification facilities and transport," said the mayor.


	He reported on a water ozonization plant to be put into operation, this year, at a Moscow water pipe-line, and an 8-km-long monorail, a new means of municipal transport to be launched in the capital's north-eastern district by 2003.


	According to Luzhkov, Russian-made conversion products are cheaper than analogous products in the West but by no means inferior to them as far as quality goes.