Vladimir Dmitriev’s address at a plenary session of the Forum Sochi-2015

TV Channel Russia 24
Live (VEB)
02.10.2015, 13:30

HOST: Vladimir Alexandrovich Dmitriev, Vnesheconombank Chairman. Vladimir Alexandrovich, I also looked through the Law on the Bank for Development. The Law specifies a lot of Vnesheconombank’s functions. Nevertheless, given that your Bank is the country’s main development institution, could you name three top-priority tasks which Vnesheconombank should carry out to return to economic growth under the conditions of the crisis and sanctions?

Vladimir DMITRIEV: Thank you Andrei. I have a difficult mission in this audience with the Prime Minister and at the same time Vnesheconombank’s Supervisory Board Chairman on my left and almost all members of Vnesheconombank’s Supervisory Board in front of me.

Vladimir DMITRIEV: In fact, in our Memorandum of Financial Policies you can find lot of sectors and various lines of economic activity where Vnesheconombank should operate. These priorities remain unchanged but the situation is changing so focuses are shifting.

HOST: By the way, I’m sorry Vladimir Alexandrovich, I haven’t mentioned a figure that shows the way Vnesheconombank operates currently. The amount of exports support has increased lately by 30 times. It’s very important for the audience to hear this figure.

Vladimir DMITRIEV: Frankly speaking, I still believe that the Bank’s top priority should be to fund major investment projects. It is especially very important now in the current situation when we see that the lending market and especially the market for investments are getting tighter. This means that the number of big, long-term credits is constantly diminishing and it goes without saying that Vnesheconombank as a main financial development institution should provide support and continue to fund major investment projects and here I mean major projects that are associated with introducing advanced technologies, manufacturing high-tech products, contributing to import substitution and increasing our exports potential. A number of large-scale projects have been implemented in our country in the past years; they include such projects as Tobolsk –Polymer, Yamal LNG, Ford-Sollers, AvtoVAZ, KamAZ, projects in our aviation industry. Besides major projects, we also give high priority to providing support for small and medium-sized enterprises. When we enter into various major projects, together with our partners we explore the possibility of creating jobs for small and medium-sized enterprises. And the newly established Corporation for the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises will be highly instrumental in creating new middle class. The new Export Center will act as single window and it will unite separate mechanisms of small and medium-sized businesses. The Export Center will provide a whole range of services. This Center should play serious role in making measures for providing the state’s support for small and medium-sized enterprises more efficient. Providing support for industrial non-raw materials exports is one of our Bank’s top-priority lines of activity and the integration of the previously existing institutions was highly instrumental in this respect. It is logical that the Russian Export Center, the Export Credit Agency of Russia and Roseximbank are Vnesheconombank’s structures. In my opinion we divide function among ourselves in a logical way, for example, Vnesheconombank is responsible for providing support for major industrial projects designed for exports - construction of electricity power stations, supplies of rolling stock, the Sukhoi Superjet 100 project and other projects. The Russian Export Center is aimed at developing universal products for small and medium-sized enterprises. I’d also like to stress the importance of a recent initiative on developing investment lift where both Vnesheconombank’s and non-government structures such as the Agency for Strategic Initiatives are involved. The idea is to reduce tax burden on small and medium-sized enterprises by way of entering into capital of efficient companies. By using financial mechanisms of Vnesheconombank Group and joining efforts of the Agency for Strategic Initiative and the business community, we are addressing crucial objectives of diversifying our economy and helping our small and medium-sized enterprises to tap foreign markets.

HOST: Thank you. It’s very important to provide support not only for big and mega-big business but also for small and medium-sized enterprises and it’s a good thing that development institutions participate in this line of activity.