Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev: I would like to speak in brief about some professional projects. We have many projects underway, and many investors are involved in them.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Let us talk about it. We meet regularly to discuss these projects. As I see it, you want to speak about current matters.
Kirill Dmitriev: Mr President, while working to implement your May executive orders and in light of a dramatic increase of investment in infrastructure and technology, we discussed the inflow of funds into these sectors with our partners. We see that they appreciate the current macroeconomic stability in Russia and believe that we can slightly increase our internal debt so as to invest this money in infrastructure. We believe that we will be able to attract over 7 trillion rubles from our partners/co-investors for them to invest in infrastructure and technology, to complement the 3 trillion rubles that will be invested via the Fund for development, as [First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anton] Siluanov said.
This investment will increase GDP by 2 percent a year, which we see as an impressive figure. We have analysed over 70 projects and have determined the spheres for investment, the amount of private funds we will need to attract and how much each of these projects will contribute to the growth of GDP. And now we want to attract our partners to these projects. This is the first thing.
The second thing is we are also increasing investment in technology. Together with our partners, we account for over 58 percent of total investment in technology in Russia. This month we had a meeting with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud. Saudi Arabia has invested over $2 billion in various projects together with us. It also allows Russian companies to offer energy services and to work in other sectors of the Saudi economy as well.
Vladimir Putin: As I understand, you and your partners are discussing another $2 billion worth of investment, that is, $2 billion worth of projects. Am I right in thinking that the overall investment amounts to $10 billion?
Kirill Dmitriev: Yes, they have agreed to allocate $10 billion and have already invested $2 billion. We plan to co-invest another $2 billion in projects this year. Our Saudi partners invest 1.50 rubles per each ruble we provide.
Vladimir Putin: Good.
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