Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

03/28/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/29/2023 01:21

Strategic session on ensuring financial sovereignty

[Link]

Strategic session on ensuring financial sovereignty

28 March 2023

[Link]

Strategic session on ensuring financial sovereignty

28 March 2023

Strategic session on ensuring financial sovereignty

Mikhail Mishustin's opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues,

Today, we will focus on ensuring the country's financial sovereignty which is a priority, and the President has instructed us to focus on it.

I covered this in detail in the Government Report to the State Duma. The West continues to do all it can to limit the Russian economy's access to global lending and investment and to contain Russia's development in the short and long term.

Last year, we managed to mitigate the impact of the sanctions. We expanded transactions in the currencies of friendly countries to replace the US dollar and the euro, which helped our businesses access new markets. As a result, the banks were able to increase corporate and retail loan portfolios.

It is vitally important to support these positive processes and to create additional sources for financing the economy and to form a pool of long money for companies to build complex projects, including in the hi-tech sector.

To this end, the Government and the State Duma are drafting an array of resolutions, including a new type of individual investment accounts and a long-term savings programme.

In order to promote interest in innovative mechanisms, certain benefits will be offered, such as a single tax deduction, where taxpayers will be eligible for a tax cut covering the amount of funds that were invested in the long-term instruments during the tax year.

We will expand the savings guarantee system similar to the one that is in effect for bank deposits.

Continued efforts to create proper conditions for the return of the companies to Russian jurisdiction are an important area of focus. In my report to the State Duma, I covered in depth our efforts to simplify the process for issuing "residence permits" to companies with Russian roots, which helped 83 organisations relocate to the special administrative regions on Oktyabrsky Island and Russky Island last year alone.

We are working on issuing federal loan bonds and other instruments in friendly currencies which was spurred by major Russian issuers accessing the market with borrowings in Chinese yuan.

We are also analysing ideas to promote infrastructure and national indicator development and to facilitate access to the domestic capital market for international participants.