Report: All investors in Russia should have equal conditions – PM

MOSCOW, Oct 21 (PRIME) -- All investors in Russia should have equally attractive conditions and operate under the same legislation, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview to Rossiya 24 television channel broadcast on Monday.

“Earlier in the 1990s, we assumed that foreign investors should be priority as they have more possibilities and more money, that they could bring another economic culture to our country. Now, our approach is different. We think that all investment should be equal, that all investors should have equally attractive conditions, that all investors are equally respected and should fall under the same regulations for compliance with the Russian laws, including the administrative, tax, and labor legislation,” he said.

The national regime should be applied to all investors, and the government should ensure a predictable policy. The government should not make any changes retroactively, and if the tax policy or a tax changes, it should remain that way for a long and predictable period of time. “I think that this will be the thing that guarantees investment the most,” he said.

Any investor can ask questions directly to any member of the government during a meeting of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council, and members of the parliament and ministers answer them. “Many investors that come to us, including largest international companies, don’t have such a format back home…In this sense, it is a unique format,” Medvedev said.

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