'Russia to set up foreign investment agency'

Moscow, Oct 16: Russia plans to set up a federal foreign investment agency to attract foreign investors in the domestic economy.

''We have a proposal to create an agency to attract foreign investment in the country,'' Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said at the meeting of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council today.

Mr Gref said he had already submitted the proposal to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, noting many countries had such investment agencies, which were an effective means of attracting foreign investments.

''This is, however, not a universal solution to the problem of improving Russia's investment image but one aspect that needs to be put into practice,'' he said.

Mr Fradkov said the rise in investment in Russia recently showed foreign investors trusted the stability of the country's economy.

He said foreign investment amounted to 27 billion dollar in the first nine months of 2006, and that 84 per cent of recently polled foreign investors considered their investment activities in Russia as successful.

''This shows that foreign investors trust in the stability of the Russian economy,'' Mr Fradkov pointed out, adding 94 per cent of the foreign companies plan to expand their activity in Russia.

He said the investment in manufacturing segments of the economy, transport, and communications, were especially high.

UNI