that followed the fall of egypt's dictator hosni mubarak. b u leaders rushed to hold talks with a new government. more updates on the libyan conflict are coming your way in less than half an hour but first our interview show spotlight don't go away. it won't. bring you the latest in science technology from around the world. we've got the future covered.

hello again you're walkin to spotlight the show on heart. today my guest in the studio is killed in the need to. have the world economic forum in st petersburg president can he means a visit launched an investment fund aimed at healing the country's economy with borrowed money innovative businesses and high tech manufacturers stand among the main recipients of the promised cash flow to fulfill them vicious gold the president sent one of the iconic figures are dressed the best in the market to spur the project but where will the money be coming from here's the head of the russian direct investment fund in the. recently created russian direct investment plan will bankroll its first project in a couple of months a billion dollars will go towards madison pharmacy agriculture an important placement the deputy head of the russian central bank says much of this money will

probably come from the middle east but the fund still has much work ahead to make everyone believe their investment question will be so. please. you're welcome to the show thank you for coming well first of all i wanted to ask you what makes your fund the new fund you're having different from other investment fund that are existing in the country because. people have been investing into russian economy for a long time i'm sure sure one of the key features is a core investment feature so we will be able to invest any money in any business unless there was at least the same amount of going vestment coming from lead in international investors so that's a very unique feature and it's very important because it always allows us to have second pairs of eyes looking over investments we are doing it allows us to bring foreign investment into the russian economy before you were appointed president of this new fund you were president of the i can promise the equities that what was so

special about this company what was so special about the job you did there that made you fit and for the need and position that made president pick you personally for this new position i'm sure well we've been doing investments and i've been doing investments in russia for the last ten years and it's very important investment businesses to have a good track record so not only to make good investments but to have good ags it's so i've been lead into firms one is dealt a private equity another in one of these i can private equity and we've really been very successful in making investments in financial services sector in me just service sector in other sectors since the economy so i'll give you an example when i was a delta we invested in one of the you know small media companies of that time called c g c media which is now one of the largest entertainment empires in russia and the value grew from fifty million when we invested in the business to over three

billion right now because russian middle class grew and advertisement trade grew so it was investing in those kinds of businesses in telecom sector in other sectors that have been successful in russia and that's why the president and the. bank supervisory board decided to pick me for this position you promise profitability of the investments in russia up to. annual twenty percent but how is that possible if the growth of the russian economy is no more than ten percent is it isn't it a contradiction now we believe that leaders of the russian business and lead in business in russia will grow dramatically and if you look historically at how much value has been created in russia in the billions and billions of dollars of value in leaders have been growing at thirty forty fifty percent in russia so we'll be focusing on those lead in segments on some of the leading businesses which will

have two principal types of investment there will be an infrastructure investment which will generate maybe ten to fifteen percent a year life more stable much more predictable sort of less exciting you know businesses will have twenty five thirty percent rates of return which we believe we can generate in private equity businesses and private businesses are growing very fast so in health care in pharmaceuticals a little bit less predictable but definitely with high growth potential i don't know if this is somehow has something to do with your appointment but recently the russian state television channels showed an american movie pretty old movie called other people's money they should for a couple of times and this is this is like the iconic movie for the united states it's about it's about investing well speaking about average growth this if you say that that leaders grow like more than twenty percent. and he won the average growth

to go higher does that mean that you want less profitable businesses or unprofitable businesses to die and that will that will be good for your business you know we believe that it will improve the statistics with it we believe we will bring a lot of efficiency into the russian economy so we will not only bring capital to invest which is very important but was our international partners will bring know how in management practice. that will allow efficient businesses to prosper and to successful and i think what's very important is it can petition is actually very good for as a commie when businesses compete they become more efficiency because they bring more products so i think you know. it's very important to invest to build successful businesses and for lots of businesses to strive to be as successful as businesses where people invest and you mentioned the value of your project so i know that by september you're planning to present a new projects which is a couple of months from now what will be the value of the projects you're going to

present again we have to be very realistic we just basically finished from a sion of the management company on june first and we in the process of hiring key people and will be able to hire them closer to september and october so in the investment process typically takes five to six months so i think we will realistically be discussing was co-investors some projects in pharma industry some projects in. utility infrastructure some projects in the health care sector and we believe that by example of the year we'll do transactions over around five hundred million dollars but that is by the end of the year in september we're just starting discussions of some of the most interesting and exciting opportunities that we still need to evaluate and work together with alcoa investment partners to analyze and really figure out so you still fishing but can you name us at least a couple of companies that are already on your hook we can look and actually that's

a good thing about private equity industry was before the deal was done it's impossible to talk about the potential targets because of best case it increases their valuation expectations and its worst case it just leaves that transactional being done because typically we all in the months once the transaction is finished rolls of paper signed and that's very important to look at of to invest in companies before you came to the. to these new friend are you dragging as some of the partners from these companies through the give and actually we're trying to minimize people impact and actually we have very careful in selecting would seem because a would want to take in all of the people from previous fund we also don't want to go in aggressive a higher way told people from all of the lead in fonts in russia so we've been actually quite successful in being very gentle in pekin some key people from different firms was sort of really offending them because we want them to be

investment partners in the russian market we also became quite a few people was international backgrounds and we have one gentleman was fifteen year over experience and in private backwards a firm another one was ten years experience so we will not only have russian nationals we'll have a well rounded teams that will include international investment leaders as well you were quoted as saying a thing that may sound funny for foreigners you saying that the russian economy is more predictable than in most of the countries what makes you think so and what are the arguments because i'm sure that most of our viewers would say that if russian economy is predictable then then what's unpredictable that the world is well i think you know it's actually a great question because when people read newspapers and saw all sorts of stories there's a basically a trade a russian certain way but those stories forget about some very key statistics very fundamental things so i'll mention just a couple russian debt is twelve percent of g.d.p.

as compared to one hundred percent almost hundred percent in the united states and that's very important because we all know that countless was piedad such as greece and some other european countries are having major major problems because basically they spent more than they've accumulated and that creates tremendous amount of tension and i think we will see lots of this in the next coming months so that's very. very good another statistic russian middle class tripled in the last five years if you look at households it was incomes of forward ten thousand to year the was eleven percent of those households in two thousand and five it's over thirty percent now so very few people know in this sort of think about the russian middle class tripled in the last five years and the final number in the russian reserves the third largest foreign reserves sons of the world so again in a very volatile economy with lots of changes to happen a lot of things that happen in heaven that question of money is actually

a very safe and very positive thing to house so i think on balance in a very volatile world if you look at the numbers if you look at statistics they actually speak pretty well about russia well my family's savings have tripled in the last year or two they were one hundred bucks today three hundred said they tripled it is so says statistics that says thinks are are tricky may be cheeky listen i've heard that the government will be a first investor that you'll be getting ten billion us from from the russian state is that true and why do you need government money yes. investment it's very important that international investors feels of that have a good partner in russia because when we have traveled to the lead in the best persons in the world they said yes we believe in russia it's possible to generate good traits of return but to do that we need to partner justice for example if you invest in china or in india you could do it on your own but probably would be a good idea to get the local partners they need that the government is the only

real reliable partner in this country well i think government is one of the key in most reliable partners in this country and i think government is making major initiatives to improve investment climates and russia so providing this capital to share risk is investors not give them any gearing cheese but be their partner and core invest a long is them is the basic idea behind the fund says q deal with dimitri you have had their. the direct investment spotlight will be back shortly we'll continue this interview after we take a break so stay with us ten. twenty years ago just country. so to.

speak janet you. where did it take them. welcome back to sport and i'm now going up in just a reminder that my guest on the show today is killed the myth that he and head of the russian direct investment fund we're talking about this new fund about about getting money to invest into russian economy how hard well the easiest part of your

job i guess is to get those those couple of billion dollars from the russian government you said an interesting thing just with before we took a pause you said that when the government becomes a partner in russia this attracts foreign investors because the part of the government is a reliable and a rich part but this is strange. you say that this attract government. it to the t in your friend in economy here is attractive for foreigners but on the other hand they used to say the russian government is too active an economy the russian government doesn't let us do for free business on a free market we want less government attention and less good government activity in the economy so says so where's the where's the limits and ave limits for for the government activities in the economy well i think it's a very good question and as a key is

a proper balance so for example we will all be in a font be able to take control and stakes was a company's so will be taken small minority positions you know maybe a block in positions of twenty five percent now together was al queda vestment partners would be able to have control but again it's not government having control it's us having a minority position but to get us going vestment partners given the major position you will be getting you believe in the government many of this means you'll be under total government control. well yes and no because governance is very important so we will have a supervisory board which will be you know a kid decision making body for the fund and it's the actual include quite a few foreigners and governments will actually be you know an important part but not the control and part of that supervisory board and that's again very unique because the whole idea behind the fund is really to help fund generate returns allow foreign investors to get those good returns and invest more down the road so

it's less commercial and this return focused entity is possible with the government really providing help but not driving all of the decisions and it's very important because we had a big meeting with mr putin where investors manage and put trillion dollars for the present and zest a very specific and direct question mr puts and will use of funds to promote certain sectors of the economy to really do sort. of government like things and he was very clear it was a fund to generate good return and it was a fine generates good for churn we know for sure it means girls businesses it means more employment opportunities it means innovation and with which your church comes first do you think that the government's come to be to you and make concrete people see will be pleased did you feel that union meetings with putin medvedev and what could encourage the government to increase its contribution well it's very important that our business is very new to craddick kind of business what do you

need it to khorat it wants to have to be seen so we either show good returns and we get more money you have merits maybe more we don't show which returns and you know we cannot raise any money going to crack ticket in my language is city code this is that's one of the students we need to produce results and it's very important i think there was a sense if you produce results if it produces good returns then. it can be managed and even now you know it's a ten billion dollar commitment the first portion we get in this year is only two billion dollars and i think prior to disburse saying you know in the next eight billion the government will below can what kind of deals we're doing i was successful i would bring in a good investor is at the positive story being cranky does it mean avoiding the long difficult projects no i think it means really being focused on projects that john they're a good for turns and then lead to creation of employment and other things but very

much focused on returns because event of the day investors do not like projects was it was money and the whole benefit of investments is actually uniting my knee and intelligent approach to businesses that can grow and the saw result produce good a good profit so i think it's a win win for the companies for investors for the government if you don't want to name you or possible partners can you tell me. which industries are on the list of your priorities way going to where are you going to. put the money you get i guess now not only in the with and gas production just told you give us some examples we believe you know agriculture is really a great sector and russia is a great place for agriculture and you know has lots of agricultural businesses that are growing dramatically but that the on the invest it so really that agriculture is going to be very interesting to see today we understand it's in a circumstance that we should have our own cucumber. that's true and that you know

agriculture prices increasing dramatically so agribusiness is very important health care again health care can be much more efficient and can be improved dramatically with proper investments i was proper and the how energy efficiency we all know that we are so much dependent on energy prices and there are all sorts of new energy efficient technologies that produce very significant cost savings so it's not venture projects it's not very risky early start or early stage projects so it was a project where we can see sort of predictable cash flow and such as energy efficiency it will produce good results but also look for the country it just crossed my mind the creation of fewer front. trying to track more new or foreign investors promising good returns doesn't mean russia is looking at a new wave of the massive privatization well privatization is definitely coming and it will be the largest privatization in the history of russia actually and there

are a number of businesses that are being put up for sale and that's very positive because it shows that government again wants to play a lesson for all in the economy and obviously we will also be looking at privatization projects and i think it's very important that may need for national investors main international funds are competing to participate in those projects because of the price goes up and that's good for the government you mentioned. agriculture you mentioned health care this of course are the priority industries where russia wants investment to flow but. what are the what are the industries that. foreign investors themselves are interested in in russia see and that's again a very key question because we didn't define those priorities just by what russian government wants we actually went to leaders or investment funds in the world and they asked for example people in the arab world what kind of industries would you

consider attractive in russia and they actually did mention agricultural health care and let's see if the russian the russian deputy head of the central bank mentioned the necessity of the tracting the arab capital the capital from arab countries to russia why such special attention to this part of the world to arab money well there is first of all quite a bit of line is that has been managed in for example of would be investment authority to manage to manage just over six hundred billion create investment office managers over two hundred fifty billion and we've been in discussions with both of them and they're very much interested was what russia has to offer and we believe that russia offer us awards of interesting investment opportunities to investors but they were just not so much focused on the region they preferred to invest in other parts of the world so being able to attract them as well as china and european funds and american funds is actually good for the russian economy in

the one of his speeches one of his recent speeches as a matter of fact prime minister putin promise that he will be protecting foreign investors i think he even said personally taking care of for investors is it enough to convince foreigners that their money in your hands are safe well i think once again that had a very positive meeting with mr porter and they came very and their gys. and very much focused on specific sectors following that meeting so i think it was very important for them to hear that message because that's a very important message for them to hear but in addition there are all sorts of institutional efforts that they can place and the fund this one of those efforts and given proper governance having success stories will contribute to the story so i think it's very important for them to here's a message but the example of the day they will be happy once they reach a dollar now and takes three dollars you know four years from now that's basically

what will make them you know really happy this side it's growing and helping to grow russia and keep commuters i'm sure for an investment in size zero and gas of course which is which is a special issue i'm sure they foreign investors would like to invest into russia in the high tech industry because because it is growing because it is a government priority and we just talked about it that if you get those investments if people will be ready to give you the many can you guarantee that you have in russia enough specialists enough people to guarantee that these investors get this money going to work well we believe that high tech is really the key industry in russia and beyond the i.p.o. which was one of the largest why it was successful high tech i.p.o. shows there is major promise in russia major promise in russia because very talented very sophisticated programmers and people russia is one of the most educated countries in the world with the keyboard is we believe it's possible to

make very good returns there are definitely going to be investing but we're not giving kenya think it's very important we share risks we're putting our money in projects we believe return is going to be good and we're sharing that risk and the trick turns at the printer interviews as investors so yes we believe that high tech is a great market to invest and it will be providing any guarantees we believe that investors will know it's a good sector to invest and they will be invest in their. ok and just just to conclude to conclude this interview. is it right the impression i got from talking to you and i think viewers also that hundred percent of these to make investments coming through your fund from abroad will be guaranteed by the russian government is not true you know there are a lot bigger again we are quite invested with them so we believe we'll make good return and if i'm a good return on mine it doubles in three or four years if we don't make good return and will loose money will lose their money and international best result

follows the money but all of us little do everything in our power and repudiation is very important to us and as a russian government that will be making successful investments but it's very important that they make independent decisions we make independent decisions and together we make very good profitable investments in russia so you promises to be fun thank you very much thank you thank you for being with us and just to remind you that my guest today was killed the head of the russian direct investor and that's it for now from all of us if you want to have your say. or someone in mind who you think might get into the next time you drop me a line. on t.v. and let's get to interact we'll be back with more comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on our t.v. and take.

libyan rebels say nato is now bombing get off his compound in tripoli one of get off easy sons saif al islam who was earlier reported arrested has made a surprise appearance in tripoli the insurgents say they are in control of most of the libyan capital while gadhafi loyalists say they hold only small parts of it. meanwhile independent journalists at the rixos hotel in tripoli tell r t they feel under siege and in danger. also opposition supporters rejoiced hoping the forty one year old regime is nearing a dead end but skeptics point to the bitter disillusionment that followed the fall of egypt's dictator hosni mubarak. and e.u. leaders rushed to hold talks with officials from libya's transitional council as it nominates several nato nations as favorites for lucrative oil contracts. of course we'll be staying with our breaking news story now as we head over to our washing.