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World Bank official upbeat on Russian economy
ITAR-TASS
Krasnoyarsk, 8 December: Russia has good economic growth this year, World Bank director for Russia Julian Schweitzer said in an interview with ITAR-TASS on Saturday [8 December].
Together with a group of experts, Schweitzer is in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk where they are studying small and medium business development. The World Bank is satisfied with Russia's economic development on the whole, Schweitzer said.
However, he noted that the country's economy still depends on raw material industrial sectors - oil production and ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. Depending on the sectors hampers economic development as a whole. And it is proved by the example of Krasnoyarsk Territory, where budget revenues have decreased considerably because of the fall in the prices for non-ferrous metals on the world market.
Russia should pay more attention to other sectors, particularly developing small and medium businesses, Schweitzer noted.
The World Bank is satisfied with its cooperation with Russia this year and is optimistic over the future, the official said. Based on the positive experience of work with Russia, the World Bank is beginning to discuss new cooperation programmes with the Russian government.
Three directions are chosen as the priority - development of the private sector in Russia, particularly small and medium businesses, management of enterprises and social issues.
Schweitzer expressed the hope that the talks with the Russian government would be successful and implementation of new joint projects would begin next year.
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