Russian Economy General News: #9

Iran expects to increase the share of transactions in national currencies in trade with Russia, Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said following his visit to Russia.

According to him, following the meeting with Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, "a good agreement on removing the dollar and using national currencies in transactions" have been reached.

"Nearly 30% of transactions between Iran and Russia are made in national currencies. Hopefully [this figure] will grow every day," Sputnik cited Hemmati as saying.

The CBI governor added that new US sanctions will not have a major effect on Iran's financial and oil activity. "The US government has already done what it wanted. The main work related to the imposition of restrictions, what they do every day, is to hinder Iran’s financial activities and the exports of Iranian oil. In my opinion, after November 6-9, nothing special will happen," Hemmati said.

Director General of SOCAR Polymer LLC Farid Jafarov said that the company has fully used the loan provided by Russia's Gazprombank.

In June 2015, the Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR and the Gazprombank signed an agreement on financing the construction of polypropylene and high-density polyethylene plants under the brand name of SOCAR Polymer in Azerbaijan.

According to the agreement, the investment committee of Gazprombank approved a loan for SOCAR Polymer company in the amount of $489 million with a maturity of 10 years.

The SOCAR Polymer project is implemented in Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park. At the first stage, SOCAR Polymer’s production capacity will be 120,000 tons of polyethylene and 180,000 tons of polypropylene. By 2021, the total capacity can reach 570,000 tons of products.

The plant will produce 19 types of products from polypropylene and 12 types of products from high density polyethylene. The products will be used, in particular, in the food and medical industries, as well as in agriculture and car manufacturing, Trend reported.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov detailed the actions taken by the government to reduce Russian economy's dependence on the dollar.

Siluanov noted that European companies are considering the idea of abandoning the dollar in transactions with Russia, switch to the euro is a natural consequence of the US policy.

"This is something that is decided by two sides, so we will now work with our partners. I think they are interested now too. As you know, there were reports about the initiative to create a euro-SWIFT payment system which will be used exclusively among European banks, European financial institutions for trade in oil, oil products and other commodities. I think the Europeans are already thinking about this. We are ready to join such initiatives," Siluanov said.

"That’s why it seems to me that this would be a way-out and response to these restrictions the U.S. is imposing on companies and financial institutions, using dollars for settlements," the First Vice Prime Minister explained.

The minister added that the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank were pursuing quite a moderate policy at the currency market. "In general, there is an understanding of how we should react to the emerging situation. I hope that the government's and the Central Bank's actions will promote the stability of the exchange rate," Siluanov told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster .

According to him, the Russian national currency had a sufficient safety margin, although the volatility at the finance markets was possible in the short term due to sanctions.

Siluanov said yesterday that the plan on de-dollarization of the Russian economy had already been prepared and submitted to the government.

The professor at the department of the stock market and investments at the Higher School of Economics, Alexander Abramov, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Russia is ready to reduce the economy’s dependence on the dollar, since much has changed since the 90s. "People started to believe in the ruble. Now the ruble can be scolded for various devaluations, but, nevertheless, the population prefers to pay and save in rubles. What is important, it was achieved not by some administrative measures, but by improving confidence in the ruble by maintaining its stability," he said in the first place.

"Also, in my opinion, it is important that the foreign exchange market has been liberalized. Today, the citizens can easily buy and sell dollars, keep savings in it. And the authorities constantly emphasize that reducing dependence on the dollar will not affect ordinary citizens. This is also a very big economic achievement of our country. There are no serious restrictions for the dollar use, and the citizens have the right to decide in what currency to hold their money," Alexander Abramov stressed.

Professor of the RANEPA faculty of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit, Yuri Yudenkov, earlier supported the government's decision to refute rumors about a possible ban on dollar use. "The population should clearly understand that we have enough cash in dollars in the country now, and there should be no panic. The banks will pay all obligations and the Central Bank will help them in cash. As for the calculations, since there is a threat of blocking accounts of our leading banks, they need to take all possible actions," he warned, adding that the dollar can’t be replaced while trading with the United States.

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. Russia has begun to export solar panels, manufactured at domestic enterprises, the first deliveries made in Europe. The journalists said the first Deputy Minister of energy of the Russian Federation.

"Exports have already begun, with the Novocheboksarsk plant in particular. In Europe. There is a small amount," he said.

"Rosatom" signed the contract on construction of six new nuclear units of Russian design in India. The document was signed on the sidelines of the 19th the Russian-Indian summit in new Delhi October 5, reported the company.

The nuclear units will be built on a new site. Russia will offer reference to the evolutionary design of the power unit with VVER-1200 reactor of generation 3+, which is 20% higher power. Such units now are being built in the USA, France and other countries. The world's first nuclear unit of the latest generation, which not only built, but also came to a physical start, became the sixth power unit of Novovoronezh NPP.

"We are pleased with our strategic cooperation with India, which is currently under construction units of NPP "Kudankulam" on the Russian design. We expect to receive in the near future order to the same serial structure of our units on a new site in the territory of India", — said General Director of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev.

GunshipDemocracy wrote:Actually Shoigu is right, yu want to move people there - create jobs, incentives infrastructure. They come in numbers. At least those most active and with entrepreneurial spirit.

Shoigu proposed the creation of a financial and industrial "capital" in Siberia

MOSCOW, October 4 - RIA News. A major financial and industrial center must be created in Siberia, said Sergei Shoigu, the minister of defense and president of the Russian Geographical Society, in an interview with Unknown Siberia magazine .

According to him, such a "kind of capital" will help the development of the Siberian and Far Eastern regions.
Shoigu told how Siberia and the Far East were developed in tsarist and Soviet times.

So, at first, they tried to change the demographic situation in Siberia by resettling the inhabitants of the European part of Russia to the Urals.

“The immigrants received impressive loans and the right to preferential travel were exempted from part of the taxes. In addition to land allotment, families were provided with one more fodder cattle - I mean a horse and a cow,” Shoigu reminded and added that people were also attracted construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway.

All this gave good results - almost five million people then migrated to Siberia, the minister noted.
According to Shoigu, in the Soviet years, the region developed "mainly due to the thousands of prisoners who built Norilsk, Dudinka, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, mastered Kamchatka, erected ports."

During World War II, enterprises were evacuated to Siberia, the minister continued. Then the time of Komsomol construction projects came: the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant, the Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk and Sayano-Shushenskaya power stations appeared, the Baikal-Amur Main Line was laid, he listed.

In his opinion, the development policy of Siberia and the Far East should be continued.
"And how can you attract people here? First of all, the living conditions. I think there is no other way," he concluded.

Earlier, a similar initiative was made by Vladimir Putin. He said that the Far East will receive the role of the locomotive of the economy. In addition, Russia will develop a national program for the development of the region.

https://ria.ru/economy/20181004/1529939584.html

miketheterrible wrote:
And here, I kept telling my friend from South Sudan that we need to really invest in the agricultural sector of South Sudan especially since Cocoa grows on its own over there.  We could be making a killing.

It always good to think about investment, however you need also to take into consideration a political stability (i.e. to what degree west is meddling there) , who is gonna to buy cocoa? US trader paying you 1  $ for manday? Perhaps some at last "fair traders" can be there.

miketheterrible wrote:The proposed railway project (well, signed anyway so not really proposed but in motion), what does it entail exactly?  Is it the expansion of the current railway line going through Siberia?