OREANDA-NEWS. March 23, 2012. The first meeting of the Working Group on Implementing the Joint Action Plan of Vnesheconombank Group and the Kaluga Region Government for the Comprehensive Development of the Kaluga Region’s Territory for a Period of 2011-2013 was held at Vnesheconombank under the Chairmanship of Vnesheconombank Deputy Chairman Sergei Vasiliev.

The Working Group is comprised of representatives of Vnesheconombank, the Kaluga region Government, the Russian Export Credit and Investment Insurance Agency, the Strategic Initiatives Agency for promoting new projects, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, OJSC Svyaz-Bank, OJSC SME Bank, OJSC VEB-Capital and OJSC VEB-Engineering.

The Working Group was set up to implement the Joint Action Plan of Vnesheconombank and the Kaluga Region Government for the Comprehensive Development of the Kaluga Region’s Territory for a Period of 2011-2013.

The meeting’s participants discussed the first results of cooperation between Vnesheconombank Group and the Kaluga region. They considered main lines of future cooperation between Vnesheconombank Group and the Kaluga region in credit-investment activity, public private partnership, providing support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Specifically, the Kaluga region prepared a project application for funding infrastructure of two industrial parks valued at more than 3.5 billion rubles and this application is to be submitted in the near future to State Corporation ‘Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)’.

Moreover, representatives of the Kaluga region expressed their interest in using Vnesheconombank Group’s credit-financial resources to modernize “old” industrial facilities including those of defense industrial complex.

The Working Group’s regular meeting is to be held in June of 2012 in the city of Kaluga.

At present, two investment projects with the participation of Vnesheconombank for a total amount of 34.7 billion rubles are being implemented in the Kaluga region. Vnesheconombank’s participation share is 27.5 billion rubles. These projects’ implementation is expected to create 16 thousand jobs. Increased budget revenues are to amount to 98 billion rubles for a period of the projects’ implementation.

As of March of 2012 the regional limit set for the Kaluga region under the programs of supporting SMEs being implemented by Vnesheconombank through OJSC SME Bank amounted to 450.8 million rubles with the unused balance being 203,7 million rubles.

The amount of credits extended by OJSC Svyaz-Bank and CJSC GLOBEX to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs amounted to 180 million rubles as of February 1, 2012.