OREANDA-NEWS. June 16, 2010. As part of educational project “Training of Specialists – Participants in Investment Projects Implemented with the Assistance of Development Institutions, a refresher course “Implementation of Investment Projects to Enhance Energy Efficiency, Energy Saving and to Develop Energy Infrastructure” was conducted at the State University-Higher School of Economics on June 7-11 of 2010.

More than 30 representatives of enterprises and regional executive authorities from the Arkhangelsk, Kursk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Tomsk, Samara and Sakhalin regions, the Republic of Tyva, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Chechen Republic and the Republic of Yakutia participated in the refresher course.

The refresher course participants listened to a course of lectures on the issues of energy consumption in the Russian Federation, main lines of the government energy policy, Moscow’s and regional centers’ experience in preparing and implementing of programs aimed at enhancing energy efficiency

The course’s investment part was devoted to specific features of development institutions’ activities, efficiency evaluation principles and methods for assessing investment projects’ risks. In the course of training, the participants took a look at the principles and criteria used for selecting investment projects at Vnesheconombank as well as considered specific examples of Vnesheconombank’s investment projects in energy infrastructure development. Implementation of investment projects with the use of public-private partnership mechanisms drew particular attention of businessmen and government officials.

Among the speakers were representatives of Russian Government, the Russian Energy Ministry, lecturers of the State University-Higher School of Economics, lead experts from sectoral research institutes and consulting sector as well as Vnesheconombank’s specialists who are directly involved in selecting, assessing and monitoring investment projects.

Refresher courses are one of key formats in the educational project and are intended for specialists and experts of institutions responsible for preparing and implementing investment projects. They are designed to not only exchange practical information on development institutions’ activities but also help to establish and promote relations between businessmen and government officials in order to efficiently implement large-scale, long-term and socially meaningful investment projects in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.