PM Mikhail Kasyanov To Attend Session Of Foreign Investment Consultative Council

Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov will attend the 15th session of Russia's consultative council on foreign investment. The council will gather in the President Hotel. Representing Russia at the session will be vice premier and finance minister Alexei Kudrin, economic development minister German Gref, Russia's Central Bank chairman Viktor Gerashchenko, and other heads of ministries and departments. This year, the council will meet on the sidelines of the visiting session of the Davos World Economic Forum to be held in Moscow October 29th and will highlight Russia's economic situation. In his report to the session, Mikhail Kasyanov intends to focus on Russia's economy and the government's steps towards improving Russia's investment climate and reducing administrative obstacles barring foreign investment, creating equal competitive conditions for all economic facilities. The Russian prime minister will also touch upon the banking reform, in part on increasing transparency of the bank activities and bringing them in line with international accounting standards. The decision to set up the consultative council was adopted in June 1994 at a session of Russian government officials and heads of largest industrial enterprises and financial corporations of the USA, Western Europe and Japan. September of 1994 saw the Russian cabinet's signing the resolution On Intensifying Efforts to Attract Investment to Russia's Economy. The council was designed to pursue a coordinated government policy seeking to attract investment. The council includes 26 major western companies and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.