MOSCOW, October 22 (Itar-Tass). — At a meeting of the Council on Foreign Investment on Monday, foreign investors asked Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev not to widely open the national market and to moderate the environmental requirements. The prime minister said in turn that the government was ready to make concessions, but warned that Russia’s GDP would grow by only 2% this year.The Russian authorities hold this event annually in order to persuade foreign businessmen to invest money in the Russian economy, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper writes - because the current conditions make the country seek any investment from abroad. Since the beginning of the crisis, almost $400 billion have flown from Russia, which is equal to its federal budget for next year. Naturally, all this affects the economic indicators.
Against the backdrop of economic stagnation and falling consumer demand, foreign investors in Russia, united in the Consultative Council on Foreign Investment, asked the Russian government for protection, the Kommersantdaily emphasizes. That is, they request Dmitry Medvedev not to open too wide the national market and to moderate the environmental requirements. In return, the investors, that have already located their production facilities in Russia, guarantee the investment growth as early as in 2014.
"Our economy has been in recession for more than a year,” President of the Neocon expert centre Mikhail Khazin told the Novye Izvestia newspaper. Surprisingly, the figures announced by Russia’s Prime Minister are even higher than the official figures given by the Russian Economic Development Ministry, he said. At the moment the ministry’s forecasts are lower than the stated 2% - it expects the annual GDP growth not to exceed 1.8%.
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