#5 - JRL 7259
Russian businessmen willing to invest in their own country
ITAR-TASS
July 21, 2003

The overall improvement of the investment climate in Russia and especially the willingness of Russians to invest money in the development and diversification of production in their own country is the main impression of Peter Woicke, head of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), after his regular visit to Russia. It is obvious that big business is now ready for making investments, he said in an interview with Itar-Tass at the IFC central office in Washington. According to Peter Woicke, during the past several years Russia witnessed the outflow of capital, while today business people have realized that there are excellent opportunities in Russia too. He believes money will start coming to Russia, to various branches of economy.

During his June trip Woicke crossed Russia from the east to the west. He visited Magadan, Norilsk, Samara, Togliatti, Moscow and St.Petersburg. IFC specializes in the World Bank group on supporting the development of private business. Naturally, the IFC head discussed IFC projects with senior executives of Russian companies. He also had meetings with some representatives of regional and federal authorities. After his meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Peter Woicke announced that during the past year, which ended for the World Bank late in June, the overall IFC financial liabilities for projects in Russia had amounted to 700 million dollars. Responding to the question on whether or not the sum would be increased in the next year, he said he did not know, but there were a number of very interesting projects to be considered.