Meeting with the representatives of Japan Bank

The purpose of the visit was to acquire the latest information on economic and political development of Russia, and also to assess  the medium-term prospects and risks. The conclusions based on the mission findings will help to draw up the basis for credit and investment programs of JBIC in Russia.

A Bank delegation was headed by the head of division of 2 Department of international lending Mr. Sigeki Takada. The delegation also included his deputy Ms. Hiromi Yusa and Mr. Shoichi Sakamoto, JBIC representative in Moscow. Gaidar Institute was represented by director of the Center for structural research Alexey Vedev and the head of the laboratory of fiscal federalism Vladimir Nazarov.

Following issues were discussed during the meeting: impact of the European debt crisis on the real and financial sector of the Russian economy, the factors of risk of dependence on the oil and gas industry and the ability to resist external shocks; the problem of fiscal policy, including the upcoming fiscal rules, based on oil prices; recent developments in the financial sector and the process of better supervision by the financial regulator; the impact and the origin of chronic capital flight; positive and negative aspects of the WTO accession; foreign policy towards the US, EU, China, countries of the Middle East and countries of the CIS with regard to The customs Union and the Energy strategy; assessment of recent political and social developments.

Reference: Japan Bank for international cooperation (JBIC) is a public institution that supports Japanese business abroad. On a regular basis it organizes missions to review the state of the economies of the main trading partners of Japan. The last mission of that kind visited Russia in October 2011.