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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the Vnesheconombank Supervisory Board

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Vladimir Putin’s opening remarks:

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let’s return to a topic we discussed at the State Duma. If you’ll recall, we talked about far-reaching development programmes in the regions, in various industries, in the housing market, in industry, infrastructure and so on. We talked about large modernisation projects.

Vnesheconombank, which is Russia’s largest development institution, is certainly expected to play an important role in these plans, contributing its credit resources as well as consultancy.

We also expect Russia’s Export Credit and Investment Insurance Agency to play an active role in these projects. This agency will be incorporated with 100% of its stock held by Vnesheconombank and is expected to help Russian exporters make forays into international markets, gain new footholds. We should be focused primarily on supporting exporters operating in innovative sectors. The government has considered the relevant amendments to laws and submitted them to the Duma.

At the same time, we need to resolve all the organisational issues for the Export Credit and Investment Insurance Agency to begin operating. First of all, we must draft a strategy for it.

We’ll soon have more tools to encourage the inflow of foreign capital into Russia’s economy. For this purpose, we have established the Russia's Direct Investment Fund. Today we need to discuss a management company for this fund. The fund’s job will be to encourage long-term foreign investment, especially in high-tech sectors (in innovation projects), in energy, oil and gas, space exploration, pharmaceuticals and other industries.

Vnesheconombank will establish the management company for the fund, with a share capital of 300 million roubles. The new company will also be able to rely on the bank’s financial resources and expertise. I believe this approach will give a good start to our work.

We will also consider a range of other issues today, mainly operational issues. I would like to focus on one of them now – the 39 billion rouble credit line for the joint venture between Ford and Russian automaker Sollers. This company has been on the market for several years. Although a young company, it has already earned a good reputation. It is now expanding to Russia’s Far East, upon our request.

I think the project we are discussing is interesting and promising. A partnership between Sollers and Ford will bring new technologies into the national auto industry and expand the capacity of the company’s existing operations in several Russian regions: Tatarstan (Yelabuga) and the Leningrad Region. The Vnesheconombank loan will go towards producing more components locally, in line with the recent requirement Russia made on its foreign partners. The money will be used to set up components production in Russia. In the long term, the joint venture will manufacture up to 60% of its components locally.

This project is an especially timely initiative, given the current revival of the Russian automobile market. In the first quarter of this year, car production grew by 120% in Russia. Also, let me remind you that we have approved additional financing for the car-scrapping programme. This all creates a favourable environment for this new far-reaching project.

Let’s get to work.