OREANDA-NEWS. April 03, 2012. Vladimir Putin's opening remarks: Good afternoon, colleagues. As you know, today dozens of people died in a flight accident near Tyumen. Before we start, I would like to observe a minute of silence in honour of the memory of those who died in the accident.

I ask all ministries, especially the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development, to focus their attention on making every effort to help the families of the victims and all those injured. Please.

Today, at the meeting of the Vnesheconombank supervisory board we will discuss the results of its work as well as goals and future plans.

As for results, I would like to emphasise the role played by Vnesheconombank during the economic crisis. Vnesheconombank allocated over 400 billion roubles in subordinated loans to Russian banking organisations as part of its anti-crisis programmes, which considerably improved liquidity. To streamline the national stock market, the bank allocated 175 billion roubles. I would like to note, as I have already noted on numerous occasions, that the bank returned all funds to the Ministry of Finance with a profit: its interest payments to the Finance Ministry, i.e. the state treasury, amounted to 13 billion roubles. Thus, it has both performed its anti-crisis function and earned money for the treasury.

The amount of funding allocated for real sector enterprises was 300 billion roubles. Importantly, Vnesheconombank continued to play a system-wide role as a development bank.

In fact, Vnesheconombank has become an important integrated institution promoting the development of the national economy. The bank considerably increased its participation in financing major investment projects in the last four years, which means the creation of new jobs and the development of new technology. Vnesheconombank's portfolio grew by 150%, and this is a very good pace of development. Its portfolio amounted to 190-191 billion roubles in 2008, while in 2011 it was over 505 billion roubles. This is a considerable amount, which is quite tangible for the economy.

The implementation of major system-wide innovation and infrastructure projects has always been a priority. I would like to point out the important projects that were implemented through Vnesheconombank, such as the construction of Tobolsk-Polymer, Russia's largest polypropylene production complex, the creation of the Sukhoi Superjet-100 passenger aircraft, the creation of the Kaluga Automotive Cluster, modernisation of the Tikhvin Carriage Works and the reconstruction of the Khabarovsk Oil Refinery. Today we will also discuss several other hi-tech projects that will be financed through Vnesheconombank. They include the construction of a liquefied gas plant in the Tambov Region and the establishment of large-scale production of LED lighting units in the special economic zone of Tomsk.

I would also like to note that entirely new tools of financing comprehensive development programmes for Russian territories were created with the direct participation of Vnesheconombank. I mean the two areas in which Vnesheconombank focuses a great deal of attention: the North Caucasus and the Far East. Our agenda today includes two such projects: the exploration of the Udokan copper deposit in the Trans-Baikal Territory and the creation of Kazbek innovation construction technology park in the Chechen Republic.

In addition, Vnesheconombank has established new institutions aimed at supporting and improving the competitiveness of the national economy. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which began operating this year, is designed to expand the flow of direct investment in the country's economy. The fund has begun active work: new projects are emerging, investment is being attracted and business cooperation with major international investors is being carried out on a permanent basis.

Certainly, I must mention the work on insuring our export contracts. This work is important, interesting and necessary, and we need to continue it. I hope that the agency for insuring foreign export contracts will undertake some financial risks. Actually, this is happening. The agency will insure export credits for the supply of commodities to Southeast Asia, the CIS, Latin America and Africa, as well as help our exporters and producers, first of all, in the non-commodity sector – mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, power plant engineering, aviation, radio electronics and the chemical industry.

Funding for Russian exporters will amount to 500 billion roubles by late 2014. The share of insured non-commodity exports will increase from 0.8%, as planned in 2012, up to 9.7%, which is almost a 10% increase. I would like to stress that both large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises will be supported. The agency will launch its pilot project to insure exporters of small and medium-sized businesses in 2012. These support measures will involve almost 3,000 small and medium-sized exporters by 2014.