The Federal Minister of Economics and Technology of Germany Michael Glos will pay his first official visit to the Republic of Moldova on September 24-25. The aim of the visit is to strengthen the commercial-economic relations between the two states. While in Moldova, the German official will have bilateral meetings with senior state officials, including President Vladimir Voronin, Head of Parliament Marian Lupu, Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Andrei Stratan, Minister of Economy and Trade Igor Dodon. On September 24, Michael Glos will have a meeting with German businessmen working in Moldova. Trade between Moldova and Germany in January-July 2007 was 212.92 mln USD or by 74.39% more compared with the corresponding period of 2006. Exports totalled 44.35 mln USD or by 83.26% more than last year, the same period. Imports added up to 168.57 mln USD or by 72.1% more compared with January-July 2006. On April 1, 2007, the German investments in Moldova amounted to 625 mln lei, making up 5.16% of the total foreign investment. A number of 146 Moldovan-German companies operate in Moldova at present. Their direct investments in social capital totalled 209 mln lei and the portfolio investments in social capital - 283 mln lei. The German assistance provided to Moldova during 15 years comes to 21.1 mln euros (financial cooperation – 10.2 mln euros, technical cooperation – 10.9 mln euros). According to the Technical Cooperation Bureau of Germany (GTZ), six technical assistance projects are now under implementation. They have a total budget of 1.33 mln euros.