OREANDA-NEWS. November 29, 2012. Opening remarks by Dmitry Medvedev:

Colleagues, we are here for another meeting of the Government Commission on Monitoring Foreign Investment in the Russian Federation. This is a regular event. Let me start by giving you some figures that illustrate that we are making some progress. I cited them not so long ago, but I would like to do the same once again before you.

In keeping with some recent reports, including a report published by the World Bank, Russia has gained eight points, rising to the 112th position on its business scale. It’s modest growth, but growth all the same – better than the 120th place, but worse than the next 111. But, in fact, there are quite important changes. If we put irony aside and speak absolutely sincerely, we did well. For example, we are in 64th place in terms of taxation indices, which is decent. This means that foreign investors approach our taxation system precisely in this way, which is a considerable improvement. The task for today is to consolidate all these positive changes, putting an emphasis on the quality of long-term investments.

As usual, we will consider both general issues and a range of individual deals that are to be coordinated. The first item on the agenda is the implementation of the Government’s instruction on drafting amendments to the Federal Law On the Procedure for Making Foreign Investments to Business Societies of Strategic Importance for National Defence and Security. Specifically, foreign investors that own 75% or more of subsoil users’ registered capital no longer have to bother with preliminary coordination of deals. This makes sense, if we keep in mind the fact that they are already now in full control and can accept all corporate decisions, including one on closing this or that business. In the interests of foreign investors, we provide an opportunity for filing an application concerning extending the effective duration of the decision on preliminary coordination of deals that have been considered by the Government Commission. It is also suggested that we eliminate the use of infectious agents in food production from the list of strategic types of activity.

Let us consider all these issues. But it is obvious that these innovations are meant to encourage foreign businesses to implement new projects in strategic sectors of Russia’s economy. And, of course, we will consider applications for deals with strategic assets and adopt decisions in keeping with how these applications and deals meet this country’s security interests.