On 6 September 2005, Minister for Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation G.O. Gref met with journalists of leading media.
In the course of the meeting the Minister told the journalists about the keynotes of Russia's social and economic policy in the second half of 2005, in 2006, in particular about the state-support measures for health care, education, science, housing and public utilities, and agriculture.
The Minister said that in order to obtain strong results in the medium term from the introduction of such economic development drivers as special economic zones, investment fund, recreation, special customs zone, it is necessary to start phasing them in right away. So the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Russia has today submitted to the RF Government Apparatus a draft Statute on the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation; the plans provide for a tender to develop special economic zones to be announced as early as in a week's time. The tender procedure has been coordinated with stakeholders and already submitted to the RF government. "All the procedure proposed by us must be as open as possible", - emphasized the Minister. "Russia has already seen real investors appearing on the scene, ready to invest into the national economy if the conditions are right. And it is now our job to put in place arrangements for implementing each of the development options proposed".
According to the Ministry's estimates, the amount of investments into Russia's automotive sector may be as much as $2 billion. Negotiations are now in their final stage with four foreign auto makers; options are still being actively explored with six more. Talks are also under way with three foreign auto part makers.
The minister also indicated that the RF Government's plans for 2006 provide for extra 115 bln roubles to be made available for a number of social programmes. About 14 bln roubles is earmarked for development of agribusiness; 22 bln roubles, for development of affordable housing and mortgage lending; some 63 bln roubles, for improvement of the healthcare system; 16 bln roubles, for education.
Arrangements have been put in place to provide federal budget guarantees for bank loans to projects of engineering development of Russian Federation constituent territories. For such purposes alone the Government plans to allocate up to 12.5 bln roubles, which at the bank rate of 13% for this type of loan will cover half of the amount of all payments.
According to an estimate by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Russia, the amount of mortgage lending in Russia will double every year beginning this year. The Minister disclosed that this country had seen some 40 thousand mortgage loans granted last year. "This year we approached that figure as early as in the first six months", - commented German Gref. In a separate initiative, by way of supplementing the federal special-purpose programme "Housing in 2002-2010" the Ministry drafted proposals for state support of young professionals active in rural areas, with housing provided for young families in rural areas.
The Minister said that regional policy is a priority option for economic development, citing the case of the Far East whose economy is to receive investments to the tune of 6 bln roubles. In September G.O. Gref plans to make a whistle-stop tour of the region.
The plans for late 2005 - early 2006, according to German Gref, include enactment of legislation to put in place conditions for investments into the subsurface use, abolishment of import duties on process equipment not manufactured in Russia, completion of WTO negotiations, solution to a number of law enforcement issues related to counterfeit products, research in a number of economic sectors such as tourism, petrochemical industry, creation of innovation fund.
