International forum "Power and Sustainable Development" being held in Siberia

Cooperation in the sphere of investments is in the centre of attention of the delegates to the international forum of regions of Europe, Power and Sustainable Development, which is being held in Omsk, Western Siberia, under the aegis of the European Foundation for the Sustainable Development operating within the Council of Europe framework. More than 300 Russian and foreign delegates are participating in the forum.

The unequivocal conclusion that Siberia is a promising and reliable region for investment and development of business can be drawn from the speeches made by representatives of the Russian and foreign business communities. The current forum has become the benefit performance of governor of the Omsk Region Leonid Polezhayev whose activity to create an attractive investment climate in the region has been highly appraised by Russian and western business.

For instance, first vice-president of OAO Sibneft Alexander Korsik expressed perplexity over the persisting opinion of existence of risks to business in Russia. People in his company are sure that in Russia the risks for business are by an order of magnitude lower than in other regions of the world. According to him, the Omsk Region is making effective use of the conditions for development of business, created by the state, and precisely for this reason Sibneft's strategy lies in concentrating business in Russia, in Siberia in particular.

The speech by Louis Moran, general manager of the SAN Interbrew holding brewing company which ranks second in Russia in the production and sale of beer and has invested 90 million euro in Omsk alone, was made in the same vein. As he noted, his company's success in Omsk stems from "the good interaction with the governor and different regulating bodies." Louis Morgan stressed that the Omsk brewery of the SAN Interbrew company which holds second place in the Omsk Region in the size of tax payments "will remain one of the key enterprises making contributions of their own to the recovery of the economy" of the region. "We want to stay here for a long time, and our long-term investment testifies to this," he stated. According to him, SAN Interbrew's success in Omsk allows the company to draw up plans for developing business "in the southern and eastern directions." The participants in the Omsk forum view it as an important element of the preparation for the World Summit on the Sustainable Development slated to be held in Johannesburg in late August - early September this year.