Russia Calling Forum: Hot Spots for Investors

The VTB Capital ‘Russia Calling’ investment forum gathered both officials from Russian ministries and foreign investors with focus on investments in Russia

The global investment forum, designed to attract foreign investors to Russia, was initiated by VTB Capital in April 2009 and soon became a tradition with annual collective negotiations and investment discussions. Before coming to London this week, Russia Calling forum has welcomed foreign companies and investment funds representatives in Moscow in October 2010. The London session of the conference is organized in a series of one-on-one meetings between investors and the top management of leading Russian companies, aimed at promoting direct dialogue with investors. Amidst experts’ forecasts and latest economic figures that gave Russia another unfair outlook, Alexey Uluykaev, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Central Bank, said that the economy was growing quicker than forecasts and the massive capital outflow that Russia saw this year could be a benefit “There is not this pressure, this global liquidity on our domestic money market, on our domestic inflation performance up to now. It helps us.”Uluykaev also pointed out that the banks have managed to cope with post crisis market situation showing more confidence and willing to lend more. Andrey Kostin, Chairmain of VTB bank, said bad loans will soon be at pre crisis levels“We see the improvement in performance of our loan book and our bad loans. I recently mentioned that we would like to see in two or three years’ time that the level of NPL would be down to around 2%, as it was pre-Crisis.”While government officials and ministry heads push actively new laws amendments which prompt foreign investors to come to Russia, the investment climate and economic conditions are providing more room for discussion, with Russia willing to establish long-term investment relationships.