OREANDA-NEWS. Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:  Dmitry Medvedev: We have some important draft laws on our agenda today, so let’s start discussing them. One of the laws is dedicated to investments: investment in companies of strategic importance for the country’s defence and security. A normal investment climate is a top priority for the activity of the Government. We have made a series of decisions lately that concern removing the obstacles that discourage foreign investors, including those investing in strategic industries. The list of so-called strategic activities has been cut, which means they are subject to different regulations now; the regulations governing foreign capital in banking and subsurface use have been eased. I have recently given a series of directives to develop measures to motivate the regions to actively search and attract investors.

On our agenda today is the draft law on regulating foreign investment, specifically Law No 57 and the corresponding amendments. This is the result of our work over the past several months. We discussed this subject last year at a meeting between the Government and the Government Commission on Monitoring Foreign Investment. We are speaking now about simplifying the process for considering of applications made by foreign investors and eliminating administrative barriers which hinder this activity.

First, we have eliminated the prior approval of business deals related to the use of subsoil resources of federal importance if 50% of the company’s registered capital belongs to the state directly or indirectly and this balance remains in place after the deal is concluded.

Second, approval will not be required for foreign investors who own 75% (the qualified majority) in the registered capital of these strategic companies, because they already control the assets and have the authority to do so.

Contracts with organisations under the jurisdiction of Russian regions are also not subject to this law.

Also, investors will have the opportunity to extend the terms of the decision taken by the government commission on preliminary approval of a deal, which means they will have more time to conclude it. This law will also include another series of measures to liberalise these kinds of investments.

We will promote having foreign investors and businesses work with Russia’s most important industries. We have discussed the draft law and some agencies have made proposals to ease the investment process for foreign companies, including investment in strategic industries.