MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) plans to discuss efforts aimed at reducing administrative barriers for investing in the country’s port and airport infrastructure with foreign investors in the second or third quarter of 2018, the regulator’s deputy head Andrei Tsyganov said in an interview with TASS.
"The plan is to organize a discussion involving interested bodies and foreign investors over measures and mechanisms of reducing administrative barriers for foreign investors intending to pour money in companies operating in seaports and airports of the Russian Federation in the second or third quarter of 2018," he said.
According to Tsyganov, it is also planned to discuss and draft mentioned measures at the next meeting of the State Council presidium on the issue of the Caspian transport and logistics infrastructure development expected in the near future.
Meanwhile, FAS anticipates certain results in the area of transport services as part of the implementation of the National competition development plan for 2018-2020, deputy head noted. Particularly, the issue is about fair competition on the market of cargo operations, development of electronic transport services systems, including for small and medium-sized businesses, control over market concentration in the field of cargo transportation, he said.
As reported earlier Russia’s monopoly regulator considers it possible to ease administrative barriers for foreign investments in ports and airports. According to FAS, the total amount of foreign investments in strategic Russian companies approved by the government commission topped $28 bln in 2015-2017, with investment in seaports standing at $1 bln and in airports - at $900 mln.
As of today, there are 67 seaports with annual capacity exceeding 1 bln tonnes and 91 airports of federal importance in Russia. According to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, investments in Russia’s infrastructure projects account for 2-4% of GDP, while the share of private capital is only about 16%.