Vnesheconombank Chairman Vladimir Dmitriev’s Interview to the State TV Channel of the Republic of Serbian Bosnia and Herzegovina

the State Television of
the Republic of Serbian Bosnia and
Herzegovina,
Banja Luka, March 28, 2015

Good afternoon dear televiewers. Our guest today is Mr. Vladimir Dmitriev, Vnesheconombank Chairman.

Good afternoon.

Today you’ve had a meeting with the President and Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbian Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Our Bank has friendly ties with the Republic of Srpska. As part of economic cooperation, we completed funding for a major project worth about 400 million euros. This is a major project to reconstruct anoil refinery,which has alreadyreached design capacity of more than 1 million tons of refined oil. This is also a machine oil plant in Modrice as well as a networkof filling stations. Our Bank funded the project and Zarubezhneft was the investor. In the course of our meeting with the Republic’s leadership, we discussed issues of bilateral economic cooperation. I’d like to note that Russia attaches significant importance to developing economic cooperation with Balkan region countries but with the Republic of Srpska we have not only economic but also kinship and spiritual ties. So, it was very important for us to provide support forfraternalpeople of the Republic of Srpska who suffered from floods in 2014. We agreed with the Government of the Republic of Srpska that this financial support would be used to restore a hospital in the city of Shamac.

The Republic of Srpska is smaller than other Balkan region states. Nevertheless, our country is of interest for the Bank for Development…

We regard the Republic of Srpska as an interesting partner for creating joint ventures. Our Bank for Development is involved not only in funding the development of our country but it also supports Russian industrial exports and investments abroad. As Vnesheconombank Chairman, I want the maximum number of Russian enterprises to come to the Republic of Srpska and create their production facilities there. We are aware that the Republic of Srpska is a lot smaller than major Balkan region states and the Republic of Srpska is a part of Bosnia and Herzegovina but we view it as a serious economic partner. And it goes without saying that Russia and the Bank for Development are interested not only in industry but also in agriculture. I’m talking about agricultural supplies to the Russian Federation.

We’ve received various information about Russian enterprises’ presence. What do you think about prospects for expanding Russian companies’ operation in the Republic of Srpska?

I can’t speakfor our whole country and for all Russian enterprises. If we talk about Zarubezhneft’s presence in the Republic of Srpska I’m sure that this is a long-term strategic investment. And to my best knowledge, Russia’s leadership position is to ensure Russian enterprises’ long-term presence in the Republic of Srpska. And in our capacity of the Bank for Development we are of course interested in providing maximum support for our enterprises that are ready to operate in the Republic of Srpska.

To what extent?

To the extent, they can afford to export products. Especially in the current situation when we responded with reciprocal sanctions to the sanctions imposed by Western European countries and the US against Russia, they (Russian enterprises) are of course ready to consider various proposals for agricultural products supplies to our country. As a whole, even irrespective of sanctions we hope that economic ties between Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska will expand including supplies of agricultural products. Agricultural cooperation is not the only sectorwhere we can interact. Historically, there is a serious industrial sector in the Republic of Srpska. I’m sure that Russian enterprises and companies have a stake in cooperation in the industrial sector. We would be glad if many Russian companies start operating in the Republic of Srpska.

In your interview, you touched upon sanctions against Russia. To what extent does Russia depend on the West on a global level?

The New Development Bank (NDB) is to be opened at the end of this year. It will be headquartered in Shanghai. It should be noted that our Bank’s employees will be posted in Shanghai and work for this bank under agreements with our partners – BRICS countries development banks. As part of BBRICS, there is a consortium of BRICS countries development banks and it goes without saying that we are cooperating with them to transfer to payments in national currencies. I don’t think there will be a turmoil in the international monetary system but there is no doubt our countries intend to withdraw from payments in dollars and euros. We have already signed an agreement with China on foreign exchange swaps and it will enable us to make payments in national currencies. By the way, China signed a similar agreement with Canada. Regional centers for bank payments and support for regional projects are being created. In general, all these efforts are aimed at establishing a center for international payments in South-East Asia. And this forms if not an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank but a major financial structure. This center is designed to form up a stable, sustainable financial system, which is to create an alternative to the current system based on the dollar and euro.And we canand we can see the extent of its instability because of sanctions that are imposed against individual countries by the US and its allies.