Translated material
Bangladeshi miracle
Russia will re-enter the foreign borrowing market and establish a business microfinance system
Yesterday's meeting of the government presidium had to begin with a report of a new terrorist attack - this time in Kizlyar . The meeting itself turned out to be almost lightning fast. Apparently, the draft order on the issue of government securities on foreign markets prepared for consideration by the Ministry of Finance did not raise any questions among the ministers.“Another crime has been committed, this time in Dagestan. Another terrorist attack, there are casualties. I do not rule out that the same gang is operating; for the third day now, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been forced to begin with words of condolences. “I will add that for us it does not matter in what part of the country crimes of this kind are committed, it does not matter who becomes the victims of this crime, people of what nationality or what religion, we proceed from the fact that this is a crime against Russia.”
The head of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Tatyana Golikova, added that they are ready to support Dagestan with medical assistance, and asked for permission to use funds allocated for specific emergency situations to the regions for other emergency purposes. The Prime Minister approved the request: “If there are not enough of them, you just need to add them.”
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev, reported that work to investigate the terrorist attack in Kizlyar had already begun. In response, Vladimir Putin stated that it was necessary to strengthen police units in the North Caucasus republics, including Dagestan, and asked the minister to provide him with relevant proposals.
Then the Presidium of the Cabinet of Ministers heard several quite peaceful reports. Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina spoke about the organization of a special economic zone on Russky Island. According to her, it is necessary to use the preparation for the APEC summit in 2012 to develop infrastructure in general and attract tourists. The authorities are counting on private investment, offering in exchange for money unchanged basic economic conditions for 20 years (for Russia, the period is prohibitive). The head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Elena Skrynnik, said that the weather allowed the southern regions to begin spring sowing work. “Thank you,” the prime minister thanked either the minister or the weather.
Then Vladimir Putin discussed with the head of the Ministry of Regional Development Viktor Basargin the work on providing housing to veterans of the Great Patriotic War. The subordinate reported that in the last three months alone more than 20 thousand apartments have been allocated and everyone who registered before March 1, 2005 will definitely be provided with housing in the month remaining before the memorable date. That's just under 1,900 people. Work is still underway to register persons who turned to the authorities later; now there are already 59 thousand such veterans, about 1 thousand apartments have been allocated to this category. The head of the government asked the head of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Igor Shchegolev, to simultaneously monitor the provision of new housing for veterans with telephones.
After the general discussion, the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers announced the agenda of the meeting - Mr. Putin highlighted another measure that was to be approved yesterday as part of the support of small and medium-sized businesses: the law on microfinance organizations. “Behind this special term are things that are extremely necessary for the normal development of small businesses. We are talking about a system of accessible credit, about small loans that firms and individual entrepreneurs can take out quickly and with a minimum of bureaucratic delays and paperwork,” the prime minister explained.
The head of government noted that it was for the concept of microcredit that the Bangladeshi scientist Muhammad Yunus received the Nobel Prize in Economics, and now the Russian Ministry of Finance decided to bring the idea to life by preparing a corresponding program. Vladimir Putin emphasized that even now, in the absence of a developed microcredit system, the demand for such loans is very high. According to experts, they are used by about 400 thousand small entrepreneurs, and their number has increased more than fivefold in recent years.
Another important project prepared by the Ministry of Finance did not receive public announcement - “On the implementation in 2010 of the issue of government securities of the Russian Federation, the obligations for which are expressed in foreign currency.” The government officially instructed the department to issue external bond loans in volumes not exceeding $17.8 billion, which has been discussed for about a year. As reported in the materials to the presidium, “the bonds proposed for issue will be denominated in foreign currency and can have medium-term and long-term maturities. Specific financial conditions for the placement of bonds (including the interest rate and volume of issue) will be determined by the Ministry of Finance on the date of placement of the bonds, taking into account the current situation in global financial markets.” The head of the Ministry of Finance, Alexei Kudrin, has already planned a road show of Russian Eurobonds for April 21-22 in New York. As reported, the organizers of the placement will be VTB Capital, Barclays Capital, Citi and Credit Suisse.