The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) have agreed to set up an investment fund for a total of $1 billion with roughly even share of assets involved, RDIF’s CEO, Kirill Dmitriyev, said.
“Today we signed a very important document... on setting up a joint Russian-Japanese [investment] fund with JBIC worth $1 billion. RDIF will not have a controlling stake, but we will invest a sum close to half [of all assets],” Dmitriyev said.
He added that the fund is going to play a “key role in financing joint Russian-Japanese investment projects.”
Infrastructure and agriculture were listed among the sectors where such joint projects were expected.
Earlier Thursday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev said that Moscow and Tokyo were signing a memorandum on a joint investment platform in a bid to attract businesses to the special economic zone on the Kuril Islands, as well as to Russia’s Far East and Russia in general.
The news follows the signing of the deal ironed out at a one-to-one meeting Thursday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, which outlines joint activities on the disputed Kuril Islands suitable to both parties. Moscow has stressed that the sovereignty of the four islands that Russia obtained after WWII, which Japan has been claiming as its own Northern Territories, is not up for discussion.
A statement on joint economic activities in the new economic zone, which may include fishing, tourism, medicine and culture, is expected to be published on Friday.