more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images group world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing up for a shelter all day. internal she's available in the. square so if it's a look she had told bangkok so i know i'm the man booker told feingold i'm only watergate hotel and. princess hotel married cool job her job on cold sweet hotel going cold the imperial queen's poto married results in sponsor to shuras in toto new supply and spoiled disinfo me her two golden cliff results and supposed. to be a one year old research and a tour of discovery beach hotel children between the resort the sea mantra pier resort to city two barracuda milk a magickal herdsman ok renaissance hotel ok roll suite toto pacific resort and spa

. in israel is available in some hotel to a period in hotel jerusalem. again this is the headline. for you don't buy that for a day's work the presidents of russia and china to sign on to the endo to trade deals but even more in the pipeline details finalizing a multi-billion dollar gas deal out of this kind of thing leave the. issues both countries saying nato must honor and not exceed the terms of the un resolution on military intervention in india. also there is no place for post one to be the message of russia's peace envoy to live it while meeting officials in tripoli. get up at previously met with opposition leaders and big guys it as part

of a push by moscow to mediate a peace deal talks took place amid a fresh name to as tried something even a capital and a rebel offensive along the coast. and noise for alleged on steel a victim food prepared to challenge him egalitarians extradition to the u.s. from thailand. the russian businessman has been awaiting trial since being arrested in the last sting over three years ago in thailand so the charges against him include conspiring to terrorists conspiring to kill americans. the rise of the bust the fall of the rest of talks to russia's a former deputy minister to find out which countries have things will dominate is the world's economic markets in the future.

hello again and welcome to spotlight they interview show on the tape i'm now hearing of and today my guest is. view. political and business leaders from around the world i'm gathering in st petersburg for the fifteenth international economic forum to discuss new ideas and current issues the motto of the event is merging the leadership for a new era but does it mean that old leaders are not the kings of the hills anymore let's ask the former russian deputy finance minister. if you get. put into the u.s. department of state the investment climate of russia has strengthened in recent years but corruption and all stable legal framework and economies dependence on natural resources are all patches that are eroding confidence among potential investors economic forum in st petersburg otherwise known as the russian basses hoping to improve the country's financial reputation with two thousand foreign

business people have turned up find out about the best and opportunities and strike dozens of multi-million dollar deals. how most of you can thank you very much for coming all shall miss if you can there was a time when the when the economic forum in st petersburg was was overshadowed by by the london economic front everyone is talking about the to take it taking place simultaneously now the russians are no longer envious and. the london eye gathering why is it a sign of. maturity or it does this reflect the rising interest far enough for a. businesses and the politicians to the event to russia to the gate to to russian market our russian economic forum in london has started for for mostly discussion of russian shoes. some paperwork for

which actually force. some point of view is. pretty new new form which is on the form as a predecessor. is look like global because most of the main agenda of some patel will form is a global agenda and a lot of discussion was the water and we'll be doing what exists to. global issues of course russian issue also will be presented and russian president is going to keep a speech to but anyway i believe that the most part of his speech will be about the global problems and russia in the framework of this problem will are there any practical results at which the forum is a bit more it's mainly just. sharing vs.

if you look at the previous events then of course as a result of this forum and contacts between. businesses. contracts some agreements framework agreements what was quite substantial amount but i think the this is not only practical result the practical result is also maybe less much. but it's result of new contacts new relationship. new let's say no more on the move in the stand in between. companies and this is a more significant practical issue for the business. well let's take a look at the history of the st petersburg on the forum now and a report by spotlights to me that. while russia's business and finance is

mostly concentrated in moscow the rest several days every tune when the capital city gets a break that's when the big money goes to st petersburg for the international economic poor and for short time russia's very soft the north becomes the place to strike while to million dollar they also and talk business when the forum was first organized fifteen years ago its goal was to restart bush economic relations between the former soviet republics the event quickly moved beyond the boundaries of the former u.s.s.r. is russia's regularly growing economy became a major attraction to foreign investors two thousand and five was the historic year for the form the opening ceremony was attended by the president for my dinner putin instantly raising the status of the event to new heights it's been dubbed the russian davos with growing leaders becoming frequent guests each year has been a record breaking for the number of deals signed on to the credit crunch down the

last minute feed the two thousand and nine form budget was cut by a quarter and the number of contracts signed to win gold the upside was still apparent you know businessmen and politicians from eighty three countries found the event to in order to meet. last year's form demonstrated russia's recovery with fifteen vast man deal signed was around fifteen b.n. you are part of the forum was the meeting of presidents medvedev and sarkozy the leader of france expressing his hope the presence of french companies in the russian market will grow. top gast expected at the forum is the chinese president hu jintao one of the key talk which to be discussed is the growing role of the so-called greeks economies. to be russia's a nation the focus of masti is for him. to stay in the sleazy. all our reporting mention foreign investment for investment is the word in the

russian foreign policy for the last couple of years how useful is the forum for attracting foreign investment to russia. it's obvious reason. and obvious. usefulness of this useful use for this. forum because. due to high level of presence on the official officials president of russia presence of other country's premier ministers for the country is the biggest big businesses are ready to participate and to take a part in discussion and to have a contact with russian companies and this is a good opportunity for the businesses to find themselves and maybe two or some first contacts maybe to sign contracts i think it's obviously what are the main weakness is russia in the eyes for investors. weakness is he's very well known but i would like to start with one of the weakness

which may be not very often. repeated actually that we have a lot of good information about the russian abroad because how we can get and let's say information about a country where the press where the magazines must media buy the best way is to get. true information is to touch to be contact. and to be in the country and from this point of view we have a some lack of good advertisement and good opportunity for. for investors to get this information it's very interesting to see that when with foreign investors which. has already in russia make an investment doing the business is a usually. treated russia as

a normal country. start to talk with companies which is not in the russia but maybe go in to do it and regarding this issue have usually more negative. information about the russian and of course some obvious reasons which is could be treated as weaknesses it's. corruption which is actually there in russia it's very well known and the russian president. is talking about this and fight in this issue with this problem. now and i think it's. corruption translated into sometimes action of course and difficulties for the companies to do business in russia you you mentioned the lack of information back people who have do have enough information about russia the investors they probably know about the problem of corruption and corruption is acknowledged by everyone

including the leaders the leadership of the russian federation so what the government is trying to do to fight corruption is a suffice is it working or something else and is needed so the should the russians do do something new or what do you think. of course government. must do more but in reality what we see actually first of all we see that there's a lot of actions against corrupted officials and every day we can see in the newspapers internet information that. some people some officials which were involved in the corruption deals are arrested or panelist and this is a company and this is a real fight against corruption. second i think it's the legislation and regulation. all corruption all types of corruption

based on the boss or some maybe not very well functioning relation and from this point of view. all legislative facts which now is considered in parliament is a subject of some sort of special test against corruption and the regulation on the level of ministers also there by steps that. anti corruption policy i think to me mean issues it's a real fight against the deals let's say and second legislation tribulation should be more and more examined against the corruption the world bank recently has a lowered its forecast for russian consumer price growth would you agree with such a pessimistic for. inflation. i

think expected inflation. low often titian about it percent it's actually proved by the i.m.f. report recently for report. presented eight percent forecast for this year. i think it's. of course eight percent this is it's not low inflation but it's at least in framework of digital i think it's a good result and a good start for the future direction of inflation and in another kind and sure. question fear is a former deputy finance minister was a bit of a stronger ruble as the central bank wanted today or a weaker ruble as many of the businesses want it. for for russia. and this current period of time is the best policy is flexible change rate like

maybe change rates of you appreciate we'll be notes so weak as is it is today but i think it's the best option in this situation because you know the. the major export of russia is rome and oil and gas and so on it means that for export this this policy is negative neutral. for imported goods yes in case of appreciation to be. competition but we have to take into account that a lot of consumer goods produced in russia based on the. or are or are all materials some. or all materials imported from. abroad and from this point a few companies which invested in. consumer production consumer was production.

will be moralists neutral again this policy says. the former deputy finance minister of russia spotlight will be back shortly after a break so stay with us don't go. play. golf with. bringing you the latest in science and technology from the realms of russia. we've got the future covered.

in russia would be soon which brightened if you mean the moon about sun from the finest impression these. stunts on t.v. dot com. welcome back to spotlight now we love in just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is i lack of you get the former russian deputy finance minister mr you know started talking about the russian currency well the daydream of the russian politicians has been has been the ruble becoming a world reserve currency will this happen in our lifetime who do you think any time soon can we expect that to happen or are not yet i think of. has a very good chances to be one of the currency which could be

a subject of reserve currency in the first even future yeah in the future why it's not getting today first of all because you. subject of control by the central bank and the level of depends on central bank policy and intentions in this case just quite small investors or banks are ready to consider a currency reserve currency because they don't understand the rules if currencies flexibles than those the market rules in this case private entities banks are ready to consider this currency market currency and operate as a business currency as a reserve currency and central banks also. first it's a necessary necessary step in order to make. one of the reserve currency the second

. completion. for my point of view russian economy now always more or less competitive and can produce products which is the subject of stable international demand so you want more competition on the international more yes and that is our country of. course. from this point a point of your fall so horrible is ready to be moralists. and of course the reason is high inflation low inflation the still inflation is eight percent. recently it's very difficult for investors to considerable as a stable reserve currency we have to achieve low inflation. maybe. four percentage points per year in this case we can see quite substantial changes

just one example i've recently been in france and they see in some of the bankers ready to operate with the rubble to exchange rubble into the euro into the rubles you mean you me here you know. cash flow but it's a first signal. present some interest in paris so you know it isn't quite there. so you cross a lot of russians as you can hear you can so cash rules. really fine that's a good sign that you have enough to base in business so. it's not enough but actually i think the. truth are screwed yourself ok listen the russian political class started talking about innovations for the last couple of years but in the nation is impossible without a qualified workforce meanwhile we were information that the brain drain is still

a great unsolved problem in russia with seventy percent of the russian students studying in the united states for example. wants to stay and find a job in the united states not coming back to moscow do you see any preconditions for this for this problem. to be cells maybe maybe the skulk of a project may help. yes it's a very complicated problem of course from the point of view of complete ition. we are not in the first line among the countries which are doing a very good education. given the but unity for the young people to get education and of course from the point of view of. some supply of the good. employment. this is a big problem and it is impossible to solve this problem in short period of time

but it's very well known that in such situations many countries. you know to keep some brain inside of the country start as a project. so you know to look to a localized localized. opportunity for the brains and young brain cells so it means that special entities like school was one of the option. maybe some ideas which is not still developed but to create some. say yes' small c.d.'s which based on the university education research professors nation and some in the nation oh i think it's only opportunity to create a local society local education society local society fix us a society and local. society for produce produce a new ideas innovations on the way which russia has to for because

to improve. environment and quality of education and quality of regulation like innovative states or russia needs a lot of day money also tend to to flee russia capital out firms according to to to an estimate may reach fifty billion dollars this year according to to to an analysis what do you see as a fundamental reasons for this i think it's a purely economic reasons i wouldn't like to actually make any. conclusions based on these figures nothing is really wrong about it's a purely economic reasons. at this moment i mean the autumn of previous year first half of this year very specific situation in the economy in russia we have a. lack of clear expectation of businesses. the mystic

demand and stability of. the mystic demand it's very significant but there's the same time they have russian companies a whole lot of. resources to invest financial resources and just to diversify business at this moment because if you haven't if you work in these global the month is much easier than to work with local demand and they're looking around and around in order to support business. and to support the business value i think it's in it's not the start of that actually look at this russian business this is you know one of the main economic news these days coming out of kremlin is the call of the other kind of record issue is one of the main presidential aides for further privatization for a new wave of privatization do you think that this new wave may affect the banking sector should should this state diminish its role in the russian banking sector.

yes definitely i think it's obvious truths it's obvious that if commercial bank is appropriate in an. environment competitive environment. and purely commercial business there are no special needs for the state to be in the capital has been especially taken into account the presence of the state in the capital of biggest state owned by now was very helpful to develop his bent to make these banks big powerful and influential it's time to privatize and to make from more from this state banks to the very powerful private banks which will be have a more opportunity. to develop not just in the country in search of the country to but to develop in europe or maybe in the. international banks like. major

banks in the world you know the question before the year two thousand and. russian oil and gas comprised less than one third. less than half of russian exports now during the last ten years it's become two thirds yet because prices for oil and gas. is very very favorable do you see do you see the problem with that with the growth of the percentage of well in gas in in the russian it depends on how to manage vis a vis let's say favor russia get from this. economic situation. of course. it is very difficult to transfer or revenue which is. so-called windfall revenue which created by the prices in the. private investment of the country it is easy to transfer this money

into the state investment because state can take and it's in reality it's. reality some significant part of this means for revenue into the budget through the special taxes but what to do is this money spent for social programs maybe it's not an issue it's a good issue but anyway it's the lack of investment this money is not transferred to. and i think the best ways to manage is to use this vince for a new. for some sort of. special fund it was done to some extent to give this money to my neighbor old in order to keep value and the same. very tough structural changes in the country with the old west on the private money results of state state revenue but we are entering an election period right now so we do have a chance that that's

a fair deal of the money from oil and gas will go into as you said the social sector thank you thank you very much and just to remind us that our guest in the studio today was i live you get the former deputy finance minister and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your say on spotlight or if you have maybe someone in mind you think i should into the next time to drop their life at al green of ad party t.v. dot are you let's keep the show interactive spotlight we'll be back with more first and comment on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take it. as. hungry for the full story we've got it for. the biggest issues get

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