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Vladimir Putin had a meeting with head of the Federal Financial Markets Service, Vladimir Milovidov

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Transcript of the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Milovidov:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Milovidov. How is the work progressing?

Vladimir Milovidov: Presently we are concentrated on realisation of the priorities specified by you in the area of Russian financial market development. We are preparing a strategy that will reflect the main trends. As far as we can see it possesses a multi-faceted approach to the financial market development. We have been discussing it for a long time with the market participants and with our colleagues in different agencies.

The market possesses a good background nowadays. The year 2007 was the most successful despite of the crisis phenomena observed in the world.

Vladimir Putin: Does the value of trade exceed 30 trillion roubles?

Vladimir Milovidov: It does. The volume is 32 trillion roubles, nearly equal to the GDP of the country. I think this year we will achieve nearly the same figures, or even more.

Unfortunately, in spite of the growth of trade, capitalisation fails to show a noticeable positive trend in view of economical processes taking place in the West. The Russian market is certainly subject to the influence of foreign investors who occupy a rather conservative position at the moment. But on the whole, Russian companies express a growing interest in investing finances within the country and attracting internal investors. Gradually the Russian investor is becoming more active.

Today we see that there is no evident healthy competition with banks. But up to 30% of long-term loans that are granted by the banks are attracted by many companies, in particular in the stock market.

So, the stock market, which used to be a very closed sphere of the economy, mostly concerned with internal speculative operations, is really turning into a source of investment for the economy. We expect that the strategy we are speaking about will strengthen those positive trends and will make them long-term ones so that the economy could really base itself on the stock market.

Vladimir Putin: What can you say about the financial centre?

Vladimir Milovidov: I think, if those trends are maintained, taking into account the size of the economy in Russia, we may certainly approach the situation in which we could become a world financial centre. Such a centre could be formed in Russia. In my opinion, all objective preconditions for that are present.

Vladimir Putin: In any case, there are preconditions for becoming a regionally important centre in our area.

Vladimir Milovidov: Certainly. All the more so since our geographical position is unique, in point of fact, we occupy time zones that are for the moment essentially unoccupied in terms of stock deal-making process. In this sense we certainly compete with other regional centres, such as Dubai centre, which is actually in the same time zone as Moscow, and with Hong-Kong. But I think we do have a potential. First and foremost, we have a potential of investment instruments, namely, the share of stock in Russian companies, which can and should circulate on the Russian market. Moreover, we possess all the possibilities to create such conditions when the price for Russian assets in Russia will be evaluated in roubles.

That is why I think that the task can be fulfilled. And our strategy provides conditions for that in the part where it bases itself upon the financial market, which could become a world regional financial centre.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.