Report: Russia works on measures to attract investors to Crimea

MOSCOW, Mar 19 (PRIME) -- The Russian government is working on several changes to legislation that would attract investors, including foreign ones, to Crimea, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said in an interview to Rossiya 24 television channel broadcast late on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting that discussed social and economic development of the peninsula that private investment in Crimea should exceed 1 trillion rubles in 2022–2025.

“The president has set a general target of attracting investment. First, we have to try and attract investment from our country. The figures are serious, and we expect 10 million tourists there in 2024. We are working on several legislative initiatives to invest Russian and foreign money in Crimea,” Khusnullin said.

Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said that participants of the meeting also discussed operations of Crimea’s financial system.

“You know that the republic’s financial system is under sanctions, meaning that access to the capital base, the ability to attract liabilities and interbank loans, and offer and issue long-term bonds are restricted,” he said.

He added that the government discussed measures to provide additional liquidity to the banking system of the peninsula.

He also said that the government planned to submit a bill on creation of a special administrative region in Crimea, which guarantees confidentiality to investors from the other regions of Russia, to the parliament’s lower chamber State Duma very soon. Creation of the region will allow companies from other region to use advantages of Crimea’s special economic zone without changing the place of registration, he said.

(73.6582 rubles – U.S. $1)

End %%md/jst%%