Samara Region Development Corporation took part in the meeting of Association of regional investment agencies
28.01.2015
On January 28, 2015, the representatives of the Corporation took part in the meeting of Association of regional investment agencies which was held in the building of Moscow Exchange. The key topic of the meeting was the discussion of the role of investment agencies and development corporations in current economic situations as well as new instruments of investment attraction.
Association of regional investment agencies was found in 2014 as a ground where the relationships among regional agencies of the Russian Federation are built and where the international players and investors cooperate. In 2014 Association acted as a co-organizer of the range of events on private public partnership (PPP) and on cooperation with regional development institutes and international partners. As a rule, large Russian and international forums were the grounds for such discussions.
President of Association of regional investment agencies Linar Yakupov and executive director of Russian investment agency Yuriy Voicehovsky highlighted some issues relevant for present days. Economic situation in the country and in the world as a whole gives opportunities for association to become a serious ground for building up interlinks between regions, the ground that has information resource, instrument for lobbying the development institutes in regions of the country and outside it. It is important that the development institutes were recognized as one of the key tools of cooperation with investors, supporting of business interests and promotion of capabilities of any given region. They must not only be active in work with investors but also promote export potential of their regions. It is necessary to establish a mechanism of effective operation of Association, to more actively involve the regional investment agencies to its work, to create popular ground for coordination and inter-departmental interaction, cooperation with Russian and international business.
Head of Moscow office of Malaysia External Trade Development Cooperation (MATRADE) Zainuddin Bin A Jalil noted that Malaysian business had been successfully working at the Russian market for several years. In particular, Malaysian investors are among the largest investors of Russian Far East. The representative of Malaysia notes that despite the fact that the trade traditionally remains the main direction for Malaysian companies , investors are interested in projects of wood processing, aerospace and high technologies.
Another guest of the discussion – ex-head of World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) Karlos Bronzatto noted the range of key aspects in the activity of any investment promotion agency: commitment to results, steps for improving their work, cooperation with the regional government, necessity to receive regular feedback from investors and active promotion of its own investment capabilities.
A special session of Association meeting was dedicated to discussion of new mechanism of investments attraction. There were held the presentations of Agricultural Investment Fund from the group of companies “Trinfico”, Distressed Assets Fund from “Nord-Group”, projects “Moscow Exchange”, Islamic Business and Finance Development Fund (IBFD Fund) on prospects of using in Russia Islamic securities “sukuk”.General Director of the electronic periodical “Capital strany” Elena Ivkina gave a report on the role of regional forums and their combination for improvement of the effectiveness of cooperation and investment attraction. The representative of Agency “Investirui v Makedoniu” Svetlana Bilovska shared her experience by saying about the necessity of improving the skills of export promotion in the structure of regional agencies for investment attraction.
For information:
Association of regional investment agencies is a ground for interaction and sharing the experience among all Russian institutes for investments attraction, coordination of investment activity between the federal center and regions, as well as for integration of regional agencies into international investment community. During the first year of Association existence, organizations representing more than a half of the Russian regions became members of it. Association assists in providing investors with information about investment potential of Russia and it regions, about state programs for investors support, about sectors of Russian economy that are of top-priority for investment and about the specific nature of investing in each region and sector. Association also helps its members in rendering the services of the development of the scheme of relations among Russian and foreign investors and investment agencies.