OREANDA-NEWS. February 28, 2011. As part of preparations for a meeting between the Russian Government and the European Commission in Brussels, State Corporation ‘Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)’ and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the EBRD) entered into a Memorandum on Understanding.

On behalf of Vnesheconombank the Memorandum was signed by Vnesheconombank Chairman Vladimir Dmitriev, on behalf of the EBRD – by its President Thomas Mirow.

The Memorandum aims to promote mutually beneficial cooperation as part of supporting the Partnership for Modernization Initiative launched by the European Union and the Russian Federation at a summit in May of 2010.

Under the Memorandum, the financial institutions intend to jointly work on projects to be implemented by European and Russian companies in Russia within the Partnership for Modernization. At the same time the parties deem it possible that each party would allocate 500 million dollars for these purposes provided that potential projects are in line with Vnesheconombank’s and the EBRD’s financial criteria and are approved by authorized governance bodies.

The parties give top priority to projects in the following sectors:
energy efficiency: energy conservation, renewable sources of energy, clean coal production and processing technologies, utilization of associated petroleum gas and methane, carbon dioxide fixation and storage, energy-efficient district heating and efforts to boost energy conservation in buildings, production facilities, energy transmission and distribution;
transport: providing support for transport integration under the Northern Dimension Partnership for Transport and Logistics and the Central Axis Partnership, cooperation in sea transport and development of multimodal transportations and lines of communications, introduction of intelligent transport systems, increased road safety, development of a Russia-EU high-speed railway network;
small and medium-sized enterprises: providing support for innovation initiatives related to small and medium-sized enterprises, including business incubators, technological parks, business technology centers, providing support for financial services offered to small and medium-sized enterprises (venture funds, lending, micro-lending and etc);
commercialization of innovation in the abovementioned and other sectors.

At their 25th summit in Rostov-on-Don on May 31 – June 1, 2010 Russia and the EU launched the Partnership for Modernization Initiative. The Partnership aims to help Russia to address issues of modernizing the Russian economy. The Partnership for Modernization’s top-priority lines are aimed at expanding opportunities for investing in the key sectors by way of encouraging economic growth and innovations, promoting bilateral trade and economic ties, creating favorable conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises, aligning technical regulations and standards as well as providing a high level of intellectual rights protection, developing a sustainable low-carbon economy and energy efficiency, enhancing cooperation in the innovation, research and development, space and other sectors.