The practice in 2013 will show the way to deal with the “drawn” debts and artificial bankruptcies

The Conference “Results of 2012: best strategies and business practices” was held on December 14 with the support from The Moscow Times newspaper and RBC TV.

Representatives of the financial and banking community took part in the first session “Russian economy in 2012. Main results”. Alexey Moiseev, Deputy Minister of Finances of Russia, told of the measures suggested by the Ministry to improve the investment climate in Russia. In particular, the position of our country in the international business ratings and the macroeconomic stability influence the investment climate. In order to support the latter, the Ministry of Finances has implemented the floating rate of exchange and budget rules. A.Moiseev also mentioned that an important stage of the pension reform was scheduled for the following year: the people will have to decide, where to invest their retirement money.

Anatoly Aksakov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma on financial market, in his turn, reminded of how the crediting of individuals and legal entities was done in 2012, and that the integration of Russia into the WTO will have a strong effect on the Russian financial market. Andrey Sharonov, Vice Mayor of Moscow for economic issues, commented on the fact that Russia and Moscow were rated low by the Doing Business. He voiced the most problematic areas, which were “pulling down” the rest: the speed of connecting to the powerline network and receipt of construction permissions. The public official assured those present that the work was going on in that sphere, and stressed the importance of “political good will” for the resolution of those problems. Leonid Kazinets, Chairman of the Board of the Barclay Corporation, shared his opinion that the year 2012 brought an unpleasant discovery that “our citizens were not prepared to invest our money in our country”. He explained that businessmen were not inclined to cooperate with the administrations of all levels, even when the latter were prepared to alleviate the administrative barriers.

Alexander Bolomatov, Associated Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", spoke at the second session – “Managing business in Russia. Best strategies and business practices of 2012”. Speaking on the issue of bankruptcy, he cited key problems of the practice in that sphere: controlled bankruptcies and exacting from the affiliated entities. It is also not yet clear, how the claims included in the register by mistake or with evil intent may be struck off the register. The adoption of the new law on bankruptcies of individuals, which is due next year, will add yet more uncertainty to the court and business practice. A.Bolomatov also answered the moderator’s questions regarding the development of the Russian legal market. According to him, the existence of foreign law consultants, which is widely applied in practice, was an important requirement to the law firms. The representatives of Krok, Rosneft, East.West.SBS Limited, ROCA in Russia & CIS companies and of the Russian repoffice of Pfizer discussed with the event participants the importance of investments into the human capital, the impact of the Russian presidential elections on the business community and the growth rates of various branches.

The participants thanked The Moscow Times representatives for the excellent organization of the Conference and the choice of topical subjects for the discussion.

The program of the Conference and the full list of participants are available at the organizers’ website.