Russia in talks with AIIB to raise money for new state infrastructure investment fund - Oreshkin
ST PETERSBURG. May 24 (Interfax) - Money from international banks will be raised, among other sources, for a new state investment fund for infrastructure; talks are underway with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin told journalists on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
"We will work on attracting some of the resources from international banks responsible for developing infrastructure, such as, for example, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank," - the minister said that the fund would be made of these types of resources. He said that the talks were already underway with AIIB.
"The first projects could be in transportation, the digital economy," he said, responding to a question on what projects will be financed by the fund.
On Thursday, speaking at a SPIEF session First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced the decision to create a fund to increase government investment in infrastructure as part of the federal budget, allocating the formation of debt resources to it.
"In the budget itself, discussion in the government is currently underway, that we will create a special resource to invest in infrastructure. What was bad was the insufficient state investment in infrastructure which could have subsequently been transformed into private investment, into the development of business. So starting in 2019, we will create a special fund, which in significant amounts - over a six year period this could be 3% of GDP - in order to massively increase state investment in this part of the economy, which will then stimulate private business. This is our objective," he said.
Siluanov said that debt resources will be used to create the fund.