Russia To Attract Foreign Investment For Major Projects With Gov't Participation- Medvedev

Russia to Attract Foreign Investment for Major Projects With Gov't Participation- Medvedev

Russia plans to attract foreign investment for major infrastructure projects, involving the Russian government, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

GORKI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2018) Russia plans to attract foreign investment for major infrastructure projects, involving the Russian government, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

"We will try to engage [foreign] investors in major projects, in which the state participates. In this respect, I would like to draw your attention to the infrastructure development projects. We are going to expand the sphere of state-private partnership mechanism implementation, and simplify the concessions establishment procedure," Medvedev said at a meeting of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council.

He added that the Russian government would continue its effort toward reaching intergovernmental agreements on dual taxation evasion.

The prime minister emphasized that the Russian government would stick to its policy of creating stable and predictable tax conditions.

"The tax burden level will remain competitive in many jurisdictions," Medvedev said.

Foreign direct investment in Russia amounted to $27.9 billion in 2017, a 14.3 percent decrease year-on-year.

The prime minister added there were still many foreign investors willing to engage in the Russian projects.

"We see that many investors remain interested in our country. This is understandable: in spite of various restrictions, our economy keeps growing, not only the gross domestic product is increasing, but also a whole range of economic indices," Medvedev said.

In 2019, Russia would have a surplus budget for the first time since 2014, he emphasized.

"The inflation remains at the level that makes it possible to maintain the macroeconomic stability, and we appreciate it. The state foreign debt is decreasing, the financial reserves are being accumulated instead of decreasing," Medvedev explained.

The Bank of Russia expects the country's GDP growth at 1.5-2 percent this year, 1.2-1.7 percent next year and 1.8-2.3 percent in 2020.