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Russia's new agency for attracting investments to regions to be established before yearend

As many as 1,140 investment projects, suggested for financing, have already come in to the Ministry and have been analyzed

Russia's Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Klimentyev

Russia's Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Klimentyev

MOSCOW, December 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's new agency for attracting investments to the regions (RAPIR) will be established before yearend. The Ministry for Regional Development has already filed organizational documents with the Ministry of Justice and expects that RAPIR will be registered as an autonomous non-commercial organization.

According to Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev, the new organization’s management will be selected through an open competition.

"Within 2014, we shall establish a portal — its tentative name is Project Exchange which will collect all information on investment projects, State support measures, a potential sales market — everything concerning the implementation of a specific project will be reflected at the portal," the Minister told the newspaper Izvestia in an interview. In so doing, Slyunyayev said the Agency and the portal would be created "through the Ministry's efforts and without an additional financing".

"As many as 1,140 investment projects, suggested for financing, have already come in to the Ministry and have been analyzed," the Minister said. However, he pointed out, the quality of the development of projects is very low. "Unfortunately, only ten percent of them can be qualified as full-value projects while the rest "are just pipe dreams that lack an appropriate elaboration of the business idea, still less a financial feasibility study," Slyunyayev acknowledged.

He explained that the new agency was being brought into being "to provide a platform in the country so that an investor, an organization suggesting a project, local and regional authorities concerned could find one another". Simultaneously, the Regional Development Ministry together with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives will train managers and entrepreneurs in investment planning.

It was Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev who announced the establishment of RAPIR at an international forum in September. He said the Ageny must become a single-window service for foreign investors. In the opinion of the Agency founders RAPIR will be of use to medium-sized businesses that come up with projects valued from $5 million.

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