OREANDA-NEWS. October 19, 2012. A regular meeting of the Working Group on Monitoring the Implementation of the Joint Action Plan of Vnesheconombank Group and the Government of the Kaluga Region on the Comprehensive Development of the Region’s Territory for a Period of 2011-2013 was held in the city of Kaluga under the chairmanship of Board Member – Vnesheconombank Deputy Chairman Sergei Vasiliev and Governor of the Kaluga region Anatoly Artamonov.

In the course of the meeting its participants discussed results of the Joint Action Plan’s implementation in the 2nd and 3d quarters of 2012 and dealt with the main lines of cooperation in credit-investment activity.

Projects in the field of construction and housing communal services were submitted to the attention of the Working Group for discussion, namely, the project on the construction of rented housing and the project on modernizing water and sewage facilities in the city of Kaluga.

The Government of the Kaluga region expressed interest in raising funds of OJSC SME Bank to finance innovation clusters in particular the Park of Active Molecules project.

The meeting’s participants paid particular attention to the plans of creating a system of supporting troubled enterprises. Representatives of the Kaluga region voiced their interest in using credit-financial resources of Vnesheconombank to modernize morally and technologically obsolete industrial facilities. A decision was taken to explore an issue of signing an agreement between OJSC VEB Capital and the Government of the Kaluga region on setting up a system of supporting such enterprises.

As part of the Working Group meeting, presentations of Vnesheconombank’s subsidiary companies, namely, the Export Credit Agency of Russia (OJSC) and the Federal Project Finance Center (OJSC) were made for the business community of the Kaluga region.

The next meeting of the Working Group is to be held in the 1st quarter of 2013.

The Working Group was established to monitor the implementation of the Joint Action Plan of Vnesheconombank Group and the Government of the Kaluga region on the Comprehensive Development of the Region’s Territory for a Period of 2011-2013. The plan was approved by Vnesheconombank Chairman V. Dmitriev and Governor of the Kaluga region A. Artamonov in October of 2011.

The Working Group is comprised of representatives of Vnesheconombank, the Kaluga region, the Export Credit Agency of Russia, the Strategic Initiatives Agency for Promoting New Projects, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, OJSC Svyaz-Bank, OJSC SME Bank, OJSC VEB Capital, OJSC VEB Engineering.

By now, Vnesheconombank’s corporate governance bodies have approved 3 investment projects in the Kaluga region in the total amount of 38.1 billion rubles, with Vnesheconombank’s participation share being 30.3 billion rubles. The investment projects’ implementation is expected to create more than 16 thousand jobs, budget revenues are to grow to 99 billion rubles.

Cooperation in providing support for small and medium-sized enterprises is also advancing. As of September 13, 2012, 149 small and medium-sized enterprises were provide with financial support through partner-banks for a total amount of 334.91 million rubles under OJSC SME Bank’s new product line.

An understanding was reached between Vnesheconombank’s PPP Directorate and the Government of the Kaluga region on preparing a list of PPP projects to provide investment consulting services.

The Government of the Kaluga region jointly with the Strategic Initiatives Agency are implementing the Road Map of Introducing an Activity Standard for Government Executive Authorities on Securing a Favorable Investment Climate in the Kaluga region.