Moscow, 6 October 2011. Russia has enormous investment potential, however its current investments are still low. Gennady Zhuzhlev, Deputy Chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) Executive Board, said this at the 3rd All-Russia Forum “Infrastructure Projects in Russia: Partnership between Business and Government.”
The EDB co-organised the forum with Vnesheconombank, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and TalkSquare.
“A systematic approach to supporting large investment projects can provide significant capital flows to regions,” said Gennady Zhuzhlev to journalists. “Development institutions, whose task is to foster financial and economic programmes, play an important part in this process. Particular attention should be paid to the development of infrastructure, because this sector is a magnet for investment in regions.”
The forum had considerable discussion because the country is facing a great deal of infrastructure challenges. These are the need for innovations, bridging the technological gap, and ensuring energy efficiency. Speakers emphasised that all these issues required a new approach to infrastructural development.
At present, Russia implements about fifteen federal mega-projects financed by the country’s Investment Fund. Their risk patterns include an unstable legal framework and higher-than-forecasted inflation. A solution to this problem that has been proposed at the forum is to study the experience of the Soviet “construction projects of the century,” to realistically assess the existing Russian projects, and to develop tools to find and attract private and international institutional investors to regions.
