Opening Address at the Meeting on the Bank Sector's Role in the Regions' Social and Economic Development December 14, 2005 Novosibirsk Ð'ступительное слово на совещании о роли банковского сектора в решении задач социально-экономического развития регионов 14 декабря 2005 года Новосибирск VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon dear colleagues! At one of our last meetings with Russian business representatives, representatives of the banking community once again raised the issue of meeting in such a format to discuss current and medium-term problems of Russia's banking sector. It is not by chance that our meeting is taking place here, in Novosibirsk. Siberia's economic development is one of the defining and long-term factors of all of Russia's social and economic development. And having a stable system of financial credit is an extremely important factor in this regard. Let me add that such a system is the base condition for the development of all the regions of the Russian Federation without exception. At the beginning, I shall say a few words about the general state of the national financial and credit sphere. One of its most important indicators is the country's relatively stable macroeconomic situation. As you know, the 2006 budget was planned with a surplus. And at the same time expenditures have increased. Significant financial means will be allocated to priority national projects in education, health care, housing and agriculture. As of 1 December 2005, Russia's gold and currency reserves amount to 168 billion dollars. They have increased by 44 billion dollars over the course of this year. The trade surplus exceeds last year's indicator by almost one and a half times. Internal investment demand continues to grow. The country's debt is consistently decreasing, in part thanks to debt repayments ahead of schedule. The banking sector's assets and profitability ratios have grown. In addition, credit organizations have been able to increase their capital. Along with this I wish to draw your attention to the fact that Russia's economy is faced with absolutely new tasks. In particular, the social and economic development of Siberian regions is in many ways connected with creating innovative production facilities, the economic development of promising territories and financing large infrastructure projects. I consider that Russia's banking system must address these new problems and meet citizens' present-day needs both by its scale and by the quality of the services it offers. However, banking services are still inaccessible for the inhabitants of remote Russian regions and also for its rural areas. The population of the Siberian Federal District is the one that suffers the most from the lack of services. Here, there is only one full-fledged banking office per ten thousand people. In addition, the lack of banking infrastructure and the banks' low level of participation in the economic and social spheres slows down the development of Russian regions and hinders the exploitation of Siberia's natural riches. It is obvious that, in practice, strictly market incentives for developing the banking sector are still particularly insufficient. The practice of granting advantages and privileges to certain credit organizations by state and municipal bodies is still going on. At the same time the share of banks with state participation in their activities has recently increased. A significant number of banks founded by the state remain weak and incapable of providing financial and credit resources for large-scale projects.

Author: niknikolay
Keywords: Ð'ладимир Путин Vladimir Putin Kremlin Moscow President Russia Президент России Opening Address Meeting Bank Regions Social Economic Development Ð'ступительное слово совещании о роли банковского сектора решении задач социально-экономического развития регионов
Added: December 27, 2008

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