OREANDA-NEWS. On May 07, 2007 Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref reported on work to establish the Russian Development Bank. Mr Gref said that the Government is preparing a package of resolutions on reorganising existing banking institutions and creating the Development Bank as a state corporation. This will enable the bank to begin operating under its new organisational and legal status by the end of the year, reported the Presidential website www.kremlin.ru.


First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reported on measures to strengthen the legal base for housing construction carried out as part of the Affordable Housing National Priority Project. Mr Putin instructed Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on the need to set up a fund for major housing repairs and resettling people living in dilapidated housing as soon as possible. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin reported on the work of the Russian-Bulgarian Intergovernmental Commission in connection with Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev’s upcoming visit to Moscow. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov informed the meeting about the results of the international conference on Iraq that took place in Egypt, and a meeting between the ‘Quartet’ of mediators in the Middle East peace process and ministers from the League of Arab States’ working group.