23-24 October 2013 ART DE LEX partners and heads of practices participated at the Second Moscow International Foreign Investment Forum.

The Second Moscow International Foreign Investment Forum organized by the Moscow City Government took place 23 - 24 October 2013.

Participants of the II Moscow International Foreign Investment Forum discussed the issues of improving investment climate in Russia, changes in legislation, as well as investment projects in Moscow and in regions. Within two days about 2,000 delegates from 20 countries attended plenary sessions and conferences of the Forum. More than 200 business meetings have been organized in the event framework that allowed to plan certain steps in attracting foreign investment to Russia.

Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, during his key speech at the opening of the first plenary session said that the Russian capital annually attracts about $ 35 billion of investments, and their volume is steadily increasing. Among the main areas of investment Sobyanin identified transport infrastructure, social services, manufacturing, urban public space, development of industrial zones.

Marat Khusnullin, Deputy Mayor for Urban Policy and Construction Investments focused his speech to investments in transport. According to him, the investment program of Moscow provides 1 trillion Rubles for transport development, 400 kilometers of roads to be built in the new territories. M. Khusnullin pointed, that the Moscow Government is actively developing transport interchange hubs, constructing new subway stations and is engaged in the reduction of administrative barriers.

General Director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev, commenting on situation with infrastructure investments, said that over the past year RDIF invested about 3 billion Rubles and attracted about 9 billion Rubles. Mostly, these are investments in the stock exchange, chain of clinics and in cinemas.

At the session on investments in cultural heritage experts discussed new opportunities for investors in the cultural sector. Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage of Moscow Inessa Muratova highlighted the unprecedented process of restoration in Moscow and the necessity to attract private investors. Representatives of Irkutsk and Kazan, actively attracting extra-budgetary funds in programs for preservation of cultural heritage, shared their restoration work experience.

The Forum also discussed trends in development of investment policy of regions and experience of foreign companies in the Russian regions. The discussion was attended by representatives of Tver, Tula, Kaluga and Tyumen regions, the Republic of Tatarstan and other regions.