President Vladimir Putin announced the upcoming establishment of a Russian-German Foreign Trade Chamber at the Russian-German Economic Forum. An agreement on creating the chamber was reached at talks with Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.
During the meeting with business community representatives, discussion turned to the draft law on limiting foreign investment in strategic sectors of the Russian economy. Commenting on points raised by one of the German participants in the forum, Mr Putin explained that the draft law does not restrict foreign investors’ access to the Russian market, including to major mineral resource deposits. The draft law aims at setting clear and transparent rules for investment activity. The objective is to liberalise investment activity by bringing it under civil law rather than regulation through state decisions is as the case at present. The draft law also has the objective of preserving state influence in the biggest mineral deposits.
The President also noted that Russia will launch a new mechanism for providing state support to investment projects – the investment fund – this year.