State banks should get involved in investment projects of borrowers - Putin
MAGNITOGORSK. July 18 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian Finance Ministry to put a system in place for government-related banks to be involved in work related to the investment projects of their borrowers.
"They need to operate in a system in which government-related banks play a direct part in the work related to the new investment projects of their major creditors. These are complicated times, and this would be a sought-after procedure. There's nothing beyond out of the ordinary here," Putin said at a meeting in Magnitogorsk devoted to the steel industry's development late Monday.
Putin said major state financial institutions had the right to reach decisions on investment projects jointly with enterprises.
"This doesn't mean projects have to be closed down, that the red light has to go on everywhere, but some extra attention to them wouldn't do any harm," he said.
Putin urged those at the meeting, who included the heads of some of Russia's biggest metallurgical companies, to be extremely careful.
"I ask you, as representatives of the business community, to pursue a very balanced and careful credit policy. Don't weight down your own investment plans and economies. It isn't that these are bad times, but they aren't the best," Putin said.