Dmitry Medvedev’s Opening Address:

Good afternoon, dear colleagues.

Our agenda is as usual overcrowded. Today, we’ll discuss issues related both to a strategy for development of Vnesheconombank as our main development institution and individual but at the same time important, large-scale transactions conducted by Vnesheconombank.

Negative conditions persist – crisis developments on the largest markets and on capital markets, our domestic problems. So, we have to monitor Vnesheconombank’s performance, given that VEB is not just a credit institution but a development institution and its efforts should be aimed at providing increased volumes of funds to finance major investment projects in order to fund large-scale programs and leading enterprises. This concerns not only all economic sectors the Bank traditionally works with but especially new import-substitution projects. Significant funds were committed to the Bank from the National Wealth Fund for it to be able to perform the above-mentioned functions in the most efficient way. Moreover, I would also like to inform you that not long ago, procedures were approved for granting subsidies to various companies operating for example in agricultural and timber processing sectors under credits raised earlier including with the participation of Vnesheconombank. The monetary funds were used for technical retooling and reconstruction under the industrial development program and they also contributed to import substitution.

Now a few words about issues we’ll discuss today. Specifically, a credit is to be extended to R-Farm Company to develop pharmaceutical industry, manufacture advanced pharmaceutical substances and finished pharmaceutical products in the Yaroslavl region, the most part of which we imported earlier. The funds will be also used to finance research and development work. I hope that all this will be highly instrumental in developing our own pharmaceutical sector in Russia, creating high-tech production facilities, new jobs and of course saturating the market with advanced pharmaceuticals at affordable prices. A lot has been already done in this respect including with Vnesheconombank’s participation. Money is provided as part of project finance.

We’ll also discuss today the first project that can be implemented through using monetary resources of the National Wealth Fund. Here I mean funding for pre-project stage of developing the Udokan copper territory in Baikal region – the largest in Russia and the third one in the world b reserves. This is a very large and very important project for East Siberia and the Far East. Energy and transport infrastructure needed not only for the project but for the entire region is to be created in the course of this project’s implementation but the most important thing is that new industrial and smelting facilities are to be created. We need to discuss today what we can do and complete coordination on this project as well as take an optimal decision taking into account the current economic situation.

There are also other projects related to the real economy. We still have to fund another major project – the Yamal LNG project. The project is designed to produce and liquefy natural gas on the basis of the South Tambey gas condensate field. Let’s discuss all these projects and weigh up all the options. We never have predetermined decisions. So, we hold meetings of our Supervisory Board in order to agree upon key lines of activity and take balanced decisions on the basis of collective discussion.

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Origin: Internet site of the Government of the Russian Federation