OPIC APPROVES $10 MILLION LOAN TO NUMOTECH, INC. TO BUILD MANUFACTURING FACILITY IN RUSSIA

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation approved a $10 million loan to Numotech, Inc. to build a medical device manufacturing facility in a history-making joint venture with former Russian nuclear scientists for medical advances.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (PRWEB) Aug, 2003 --- Numotech, Inc. will use a $10 million loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to build a medical device manufacturing facility in the first Russian joint venture with a U.S. company, which will employ former Russian nuclear scientists to manufacture medical equipment.

This unique project facilitating U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) efforts to reduce nuclear proliferation will employ the scientists to manufacture medical components, medical equipment such as prosthetics and state-of-the-art burn treatments, and medical devices, initially for Numotech, Inc. and then for other companies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has utilized Sandia National Laboratories, a multi-program laboratory operated by the Lockheed Martin Company for the DOE, as part of Russian Transitions Initiatives program to reduce the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Sandia uses scientists and skilled technicians who formerly worked to design and develop Russian weapons to help U.S. companies, such as Numotech, Inc., develop cutting-edge technologies in various non-defense-related industries such as medical equipment manufacturing.

Numotechs Russian partner, Spektr-Conversion, LLC, is staffed with former employees of the Russian Federations All Russian Scientific and Research Institute for Technical Physics (VNIITF) who previously worked on manufacturing and designing weapons. Spektr-Conversion, LLC now functions as an independent small research and development and prototype manufacturer and is no longer associated with VNIITF.

The joint venture project in Russia is the first between a U.S. corporation and a Russian company of a closed city that will be approved by all levels of the government from the City Administration of Snezhinsk to the Russian Federation. The project also has the approval of Minatom, the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Recognizing the development possibilities that exist for the joint venture project, OPIC has invited Numotech, Inc. President/CEO, Dr. Robert Felton, and Anatoli Semyonovich Ivanov, Director-General, Spektr-Conversion, LLC to address its Investing in Russia: Partnership for Growth" investment conference on the topic of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises-Lessons Learned in Russia."

OPIC is sponsoring this conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, in September as part of President Bushs commitment to expanding trade and investment opportunities between the Russian Federation and the U.S. The conference is an important step in fulfilling the joint efforts of President Putin and President Bush to strengthen the bonds between the U.S. and the Russian Federation.